Until I met you
by bumblebeeteacup10
Summary: A story following Jack, a new kid at school who is intrigued by a beautiful girl with similar powers to him, only to find that she is a complete stick in the mud, Rapunzel, who must resort to dealing with a thief to go to a festival, and Hiccup somehow caught making a weapon with the fiercest girl at school. Stories of Romance and finding yourself. AU Jelsa/ Flynunzel/ Mericcup
1. Chapter 1

[Jack]

First day of school, correction, first day of junior year high school ( also officially known as hell), at a new school where you don't know anyone. How hard can it be right? Jack thought to himself as he stared at the big bold letters reading Grimm High School. Hopefully the experience wasn't as bad as the name. Bag on his shoulder he walked through the doors and waited for the stares, but they never came. No-one looked at him funny for having silver hair, the only comment he got was "Get out of the way! You're blocking the door!" Everyone here was a freak in some way shape or form. As he walked in to the common area, things were looking up… until they literally weren't. Two steps in his face become very well acquainted with the floor.

"Oh, my bad." Said a red head sarcastically smirking, next to him stood two tawny haired pudgy dudes, probably this high school's version of a gang, but the way they were standing they looked more like a hot dog.

" Hey I've never seen you around before." The boy said staring down at him shoving his hands in his pockets. Jack picked himself up and replied, "I'd be surprised if you had, I'm new."

"Oh" a sadistic glint flashed over the boy's eyes which just made Jack angry more than anything else. Who did this Bozo think he was? But the boy kept talking

"Then we should give him a proper welcome shouldn't we boys? Why don't we find out what his talent is?"

"Your grave" Jack said simply shrugging, not at all intimidated by this red headed twerp.

"Leave him alone Hans," The gang turned to reveal a boy with dark brown hair and green eyes standing behind them.

"Or what? You'll send your pet to eat me?"

"Great, we're on the same page," the other boy replied.

"Hans is it?" Jack said cutting in, " I'd really love to sit here and chat, honestly I would, but I have to go meet my new best friend here. Don't you have a lucky charms commercial to shoot or something?"

At that Hans attempted to come at him, Attempted because he couldn't move if he'd wanted to, his feet were frozen to the ground.

"What the hell!" Hans cried looking at his feet.

"You wanted to know my talents, now you know half. I'll leave the other bit a mystery, thats for the second date hotshot," he said winking at the redhead as he passed Hans and his crew. "You'll regret this!" Hans shouted.

"Oh I'm sure I will," Jack called back sarcastically before walking away with the dark haired boy. " Didn't catch your name" Jack said to him.

"Hiccup"

"Interesting name."

"Interesting hair."

"Touche"

"Yours?"

"Jack Frost."

"Nice to meet you Jack, hope Hans didn't make you too anxious about going here."

"Oh I'm truly excited to be dry freezing his stuff every day."

"Hah, well let me introduce you to a few people who will make this place a little less like hell."

Hiccup led Jack to a small table in the corner of the common area. "Hey guys, this is Jack, he's new…"

"Hi! I'm Ana" a red haired bright girl said cutting off Hiccup, looking at Jack utterly excited. "Oh My Gosh your hair is so cool, whats your talent? How are you liking school so far?"

"Umm…. 5 out of 10 on the welcoming ceremony" he replied wide eyed.

"He ran in to Hans on his way in," Hiccup explained, Anna immediately scrunched up her nose in dislike, and the larger blond boy, presumably her boyfriend since they were holding hands, reached his hand out, "Any enemy of Hans is a friend of mine, Kristof, nice to meet you."

A girl ran up behind him an over sized sweatshirt and paint splattered jeans, she had a band-aid over her forehead, and a braid of thick blond hair that nearly brushed the floor. "Hi guys," she said a little out of breath.

"Hey Rapunzel, you're just in time to meet Jack, he's new here."

"Oh! I'm sorry, Hi, I'm Rapunzel."

"Jack, but you already knew that," he replied.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked her gesturing to her forehead. Rapunzel looked up as if that would give her the ability to see it and slowly nodded, " Oh… yeah its nothing," she said shyly, pulling her braid over her shoulder and playing with it. Huh.. thats odd, Jack thought to himself but his thoughts didn't stay there long because in the corner of his eye he caught sight of hair almost as pale as his. He turned to see most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life, with giant blue eyes, platinum blonde hair, and not just that, there was something about her, this air of mystery surrounding her that intrigued him, but before he could ask Hiccup who she was, the bell rang. He looked down at his schedule and followed the numbers to home room for the start of the day. There the teacher, Mr. Milo, explained to him that each class would either be mixed or taught based on similar powers, or mixed for general lessons on other subjects. He was roughly handed several pamphlets and shoved off with an "Off you go!" As he was rushed out the door with the crowd. He managed to slip out of the sea of humans, and take a glance at his schedule. First block: History of Magic… was it to late to go back and let Hans kill him?

[Rapunzel]

Rapunzel sat in her AP art class with only 4 other people. Many of the best artists had graduated and continued interest seemed to be dwindling. Rapunzel loved her schedule, other than the basic biology and health classes she had to take because of the magic hair, her entire day consisted of art or astronomy, the two things she could lose herself in and forget about Gothel. The woman was her foster mother, restrictive, selfish, and slightly abusive. Rapunzel knew the only reason she even minority took care of her was for the money, and the added bonus and blackmail of magic hair.

" Attention class" her art teacher Mr. Rafiki called out to them. " I'm afraid I have to start the year off with bad news, not a great omen but it would be worse to have the bad news left unsaid spurring false hope. I know every year we go on a field trip to the Kingdoms art festival, but unfortunately it will not run this year."

No no no no no Rapunzel frantically panicked in her mind. She'd dreamed of the art festival since middle school, to be surrounded by music and colors and dancing and paint. To see the lanterns kiss the stars. And now it was gone, snatched away, like everything always was.

"Why?" She asked.

"Due to a new policy the school has made a rule that for any field trip to run you must have 10 students signed up to go. We just don't have the numbers to make it this year."

"Please Mr. Rafiki, isn't there any way we can work it out?" She asked, " maybe if we opened it up to more than just AP, to the lower level art students too…"

"I'm afraid I already proposed the idea, even so we only make it to 9," he said sighing, " the interest in art just isn't there any more, and the rest of the hooligans in the class are only there for their schedules. They have no interest in spending part of their vacation on a school art field trip."

"There must be some way,"

"I'm sorry, but unless we get to 10 my hands are tied."

"What if I find someone?" Mr. Rafiki smiled at her.

" I love your passion. If you can find someone I'd be more than happy to take you all. I wish you the best of luck."

As the bell rang Rapunzel slowly shuffled out of the classroom biting her lip. There had to be someone who was taking art that she could convince. Hiccup wasn't, neither were Anna and Kristof… maybe that new kid Jack would… suddenly someone bumped in to her shoulder but not before she realized what they were doing. As the boy passed her she felt a nudge on her shoulder and looked back to see one of her folders in his hand, the little pickpocket was trying to steal her art. "Hey!" She yelled at the boy and he began sprinting down the hall, so she did the only thing she could, she followed him. "Hey! Thats mine!" She shouted running after him. She slowed as she watched the boy look back and start to turn a corner when he rammed straight in to two burly seniors. The red headed twins. That was the only name she knew them by, and that was the only name she wanted to know them by, they had a reputation around the school, one that clears stated that you did not mess with them, clearly the their had not gotten that memo. She hid behind the far corner of the hallway and watched.

" Hey!" The thief said, " Did you guys get haircuts? You're really looking like new men."

"Whatchya got there," The one with the scarred eye asked. His brother grunted and piped in, " Yeah Rider, thought you could really get away after throwing us under the bus?"

"I'm hurt" the thief responded, " you think so little of me that I would turn you in?" The twins looked at each other unamused. The theif continued to spit out words, " Okay but one of us had to take one for the team, and since you're both basically the same person it sadly ended up being both of you, but trust me it was all part of the plan, it'll all blow over, but I feel terrible I really do."

"Well," the scarred twin replied, " you can start making it up now, I see you have our next art assignments there."

"… Of course… yes! This is for you! Completely intentional, I was just on my way to give it to you in fact!"

"Uh huh" the towering twins replied, " Just so you don't weasel out on us again" Rapunzel heard a squeal from the boy that she didn't even know was a sound men could make. She waited until the twins had left to sneak down the hall to see her thief hanging from the door of an empty classroom by his underwear.

"Enjoy the show Blondie?" The thief asked.

"My name is Rapunzel"

"Gesundheit" the boy replied bored, " so are you going to just stand there staring at me or is your morality going to take over or what?"

"You stole my sketchbook" she said. When she had followed him, what conversation she would have hadn't really come to mind until she realized she was going to have to say words to the boy hanging on the door.

" Well if you want it back, I don't have it, but you are more than welcome to try to get it yourself."

She wasn't really worried about that, she would get it back anyway. Mr. Rafiki could spot differences in art from a mile away, and after two years he knew her style. He'd recognize the theft in no time. This on the other hand was an opportunity however, one that she was not about to let up.

" Why did you take it?"

" Cause apparently a class as dumb as art had a summer assignment that stick figures were not going to cut."

Her brain buzzed with excitement, this was her chance. She was going to that festival.

"Well Mr…"

"Call me Flynn"

"Well Mr. Flynn, I'm going to offer you a deal."

"No"

She kept talking anyway, " Have you heard of the winter Valencian Art festival?"

"You mean the stupid paint thing at the capital every year?"

"I want you to sign up for the art field trip tot go to that festival."

"Yeah… no can do Blondie. I actually have a life and would not be caught spending any part of my winter break with a bunch of nerds on a school field trip for art of all things."

"Well I guess you'll have to keep drawing stick figures them," Rapunzel said smiling and slowly walking away.

"Huh?" She abruptly turned to him.

"If you sign up, not only will I get you down from the top of that door, but I will also do all of your art assignments for the next month. That is my deal."

"Let me get this straight, I sign up for this dumb art field trip, you'll get me down and do all my assignments for the next month?" She nodded.

"Make it the rest of the semester"

"Two months"

"Four months"

Two and a half, take it or leave it."

"No"

"Fine" she said walking away. He'd forgotten that part of the deal had been to get him down. For fertility's sake he shouted, "Wait! I'll do it! Two and a half months and I'll do it!"

"Really?!" She said eyes wide with excitement, but he really didn't have time for that.

"Yes! Now get me down." She grabbed a chair and pushed the cloth from the door frame "AHHHH" he fell to the floor, trying to catch his balance but eventually falling.

She cringed, "oops".

He lifted himself slowly, adjusting his clothing, " I expect you to hold up your end of the bargain Blondie, meet me in the back of the cafeteria with a piece every morning."

"Only if you sign up…"

"I will I will. Now get busy, I expect some A level material for my class this afternoon."

Rapunzel smiled to herself, things were starting to look up.

[Hiccup]

Hiccup sat in the shop, really most of his schedule led him here. He had gotten to the point where the teacher didn't even actually make him participate, instead he simply sat on the side working on his own projects. He was working on a new leg for himself, the school had just gotten a new 3D printer and he wanted to play with it for his newest design, if he got it right the motion of the ankle would be near identical to a humans and his movements would become far more fluid. That was what he was known for, kind of his unintentional talent other than his way with dragons. His leeway had given him the chance to build quite a blackmarket business within the school. If anyone needed something made or fixed, he was the one they turned to, and Mr. Tadashi was more than happy to look the other way as he worked on his "projects". So he wasn't all that surprised when he heard a clamor of wood on his table in front of him. Over his blueprints for his leg lay what looked like a broken bow.

"I need your help" said a voice with a thick Scottish accent, it could only be one person, Merida the archery legend. He'd heard rumors that there was some exchange student from Scotland who was the fiercest and most deadly accurate archer that ever lived. She gave him a hard stare, "Yer the dragon boy right?"

"That's me, and you know you could be polite,"

She rolled her eyes, "What're ya my mother? Listen I wont get in to the details but my bow's broken and I have a tournament in 3 months. I'll need it fast to break it in and I need the best arrows made to fit. I'll pay ya." She reached out her hand, " help me make it?"

Hiccup stared at her slightly overwhelmed, " um… yeah sure I guess" he said shaking her hand.

"Great, I'll be down every day same time to work on it,"

"Wait what?"

" Whatchya think? Can't have you messing it up, and every archer should know how to craft their own bow."

"Hang on I never agreed to teach you…"

"You shook on the fact that you'd help me make it, and thats exactly what you are going to so, see you tomorrow." And she was out the door before he could make any more objections. He stared at the broken bow on his table… this is not what he hd signed up for.


	2. Chapter 2

[Jack]

After Jack almost fell asleep in history of magic he was almost giddy to be going to applications, FINALLY a class where they could actually do something. The girl with the platinum blonde hair had been in his history class. He learned was named Elsa, and she happened to be sisters with the Anna he had met that morning, her powers: ice. So it wasn't surprising that she was in all his classes, not that he was complaining. She seemed to keep to herself though; she sat alone, never really talked to anyone, and always wore gloves. In applications, unlike history of magic, it was just the two of them, considering that they were really the only two in their class that really needed know how to apply freezing things to their daily lives, to their occupations, and for social betterment. Their first assignment, given to them by Mr. North, was to just brainstorm ideas of how they could practically use their powers out in the world. North simply sat at his desk grading papers ( though Jack didn't know how much there really was to grade since it was the first day). He looked over to see the girl sigh, get out of her seat at the opposite end of the row to his and sit down closer, but still a seat away from him. He extended his hand out, " Hi, I'm Jack."

"Elsa" she said looking at his hand and choosing to ignore it, instead she pulled out a notebook and pencil.

"Um… okay then," Jack said awkwardly retracting his hanging hand.

"I've already thought of ideas," she began roughly, " we could supplement the ice industry, provided environmentally friendly and efficient refrigeration and storage of goods…"

"Oh!" Jack interrupted, " We could start our own black market snow day business where people can pay us to cause snow days so that they wont have to go in to work or school. Or set the record for the largest freestanding ice sculpture at those ice sculpting contests." Elsa stared at him seemingly unamused, but he caught a hint of a smile she seemed to want to hide, it was either that or she was trying really hard to snap at him. On second thought it was probably the latter.

"This is supposed to be practical," she said.

"I am being practical, you dare doubt my ice sculpture skills? When do we get to the actual magic part anyway?"

"What?"

"You know, freezing stuff, making stuff, etc."

"This is applications, it's purely hypothetical, we can't control them yet."

"What?"

"Our powers."

"Why not? How hard is this?" He dragged a finger across the table, frosting it over and then making little animated designs out of it. He looked up to see a look of sheer horror in Elsa's eyes.

"We're not supposed to," she said frantically.

"Come on,"

"NORTH!" She yelled, " Jack's frosting the table over!"

The burly teacher looked up from his papers. "Mr. Frost! Magic is prohibited inside the classroom unless specifically instructed by me. I'm afraid I'm going to have to send you to the principal's office,"

"Come on!"

"Rules are rules," Mr. North said pointing to the door. Jack scowled and then shot a glare at Elsa who simply sat looking prissy and fidgeting with her gloves. Grabbing his books he marched out the door, _anything_ he might have felt for this girl was gone. She was a snitch, even worse she was a cowardly snitch with a stick up her ass, a snitch he was now stuck with in every class. The day just kept getting better and better.

[Flynn]

Flynn leaned against the cafeteria wall at his usual meeting spot with Rapunzel. For two weeks now since the first day of school she had made good on her promise. One the first day she had come to him with a painting drastically different from the one he'd stolen from her. She'd said she'd been sure to make it different from her normal style and she left out anything too complicated so he wouldn't have too much trouble replicating it if asked to do so. She'd really thought this through, she almost seemed like a better con than him. Looking at the paintings he had to admit she was good, really good. At her best, he didn't see any difference between the skill in her work and that which he had seen in some museums, hers were even better in some cases, not that he was a very qualified art critic. They had their routine. She gave him the painting, told him the basics about it, then they parted ways before meeting up at the end of the day for him to tell her what the next assignment was and what style or period they were supposed to be doing. However today was off setting for him now because she was late. Flynn swiped the sweat off of his brow, man it was hot today, especially for mid September. He eyed the clock and was just about to head to his homeroom when he saw a small figure running towards him. He prepared his snarky comment, "It's about time Blond…" but he didn't get time to finish before she had shoved the painting at him and ran away…wearing a sweatshirt. _Weird_ he thought to himself before heading to homeroom.

That afternoon he met up with her again, handing her the sheets of paper from that day that meant nothing to him.

" Hey Blondie, he did some things and kept talking about shading and capturing light or something, but I think this one is just the classic bowl of fruit painting. Stay away from apples, I have bad luck with them."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said with a laugh.

"What was up with this morning?" He asked nonchalantly but it seemed to make her far more uncomfortable than warranted. He was a thief, observation was something he had to be good at, so the fact that she began to nervously play with her hair only pointed out all the other differences from today. Her hair was parted differently so that it covered more of her forehead, and despite the mid seventy degree whether, she continued to wear a sweatshirt.

"Oh this morning was nothing, I was just running late," she said. _Hmm_ , her voice had gotten noticeably higher. Time for his investigation.

"Why were you late?"

"I woke up late,"

"Why are you still wearing a sweatshirt?"

"It's cold"

"It's like 75 degrees out,"

"… That's cold for me?" She had become incredibly fidgety, " Look I gotta go," she said turning away from him.

"Wait, " he said realizing one of the assignment papers was still in his hand. He grabbed at her forearm " You forgot.." But he noticed her flinch and let out a whimper, stopping him mid-sentence. His hand had caused her sleeve to ride up as he tried to get a grip and he noticed a large purple bruise on her forearm right where he had grabbed it. She quickly snatched her arm out of his, grabbed the piece of paper shouting "We're gonna be late!" before running away again.

[Hiccup]

Hiccup found himself inspecting the broken bow over and over again, it had been made alright but there were sooooo many potential improvements he could make to its previously fairly simplistic design. He had drafted up sketches and designs of the new bow and a matching set of arrows, if he was right, this would make her more of a precise archer than she already was.

"Alright lets get to it." Hiccup looked up to see Merida, clad in riding boots, her hair wild, and still smelling a little like horse, telling him she had come straight from the stables. Not that he minded, the smell of horse happened to be 10 times better than the smell of dragon.

"Not so fast," Hiccup said, " Before we start I sketched out a few ideas of what he could do with it since we are making it from scratch anyway." He handed her the sheets ready to explain but before he could she was already poring over it amazed.

"Oh my holy hell, this is genius. I cant believe I never thought of using Byrindar wood before."

Hiccup looked at her a little startled. " Um… yeah, I figured even though its from the realm of magic I figured it should still work for your tournament since its neither a bewitched wood nor a wood with any particular powers. But it is fairly light, with great flexibility."

Merida continued to scan the designs, "It's a darker color so its more conducive to blending in as well, and if I remember correctly it's a native wood of this area so getting some shouldn't be too hard."

"Ummm… yeah exactly," Hiccup replied getting more in to it now, " It's not really in high demand since its not a wood to bewitch."

"Will it still be able to withstand the tension without snapping? Would the lightness of it make it less durable?" She asked.

" I did a bit of research and some calculations and I didn't see any reasons why it wouldn't, if it seems like it might be a problem I'll put in a few reinforcements as we go, but with the wood and a few tweaks to the original design, you should be able to shoot farther."

"Better," Merida said smiling.

"Ok," Hiccup said, " I'll take that as a yes. That'll be it for today, I'll pick up the wood tomorrow and we can start then."

"Alright see ya then," she began walking away, but turned back when she heard Hiccup call her name.

"How do you know so much about wood?"

"Are ya kidding?" She said, " I shoot wooden arrows, from a wooden bow, at wooden targets. I have to know something to get by. I know what yer thinking though. Just because I'm a girl I cant know my trees."

"No!" Hiccup said, " uh.. ugh thats not what I meant, sorry. It's just that I've never met anyone interested in it, people just come to the class to use the 3D printer or because they get to use the drills."

"Oh," Merida said pausing for a moment, " Well now ya know someone." She said with a shrug and then spun on her heel and left. _Huh_ Hiccup thought to himself, maybe working with someone wouldn't be so bad.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

First Author's Note WEEEHEEEW! Thank you for the reviews! They mean the world, it's my first fanfic and I'm honestly just really happy to see that people are reading it at all. This chapter our characters are going to be breaking some barriers, its a bit longer but I hope you guys like it! Without further ado…

[Jack]

Jack sat in the field bored out of his mind. He'd been told that after two weeks he'd be able to start using magic in his field training class outside, with teachers instruction and supervision. He'd been let off with a stern warning the first day since he was new, but it taught him to steer clear of this Elsa chick ( which was kind of hard considering they were the only two people in two of his classes). However they were already three weeks in and the most he'd been allowed to do was make it slightly flurry. Since they were the only two students with the powers of ice, they were both taught field training by Frozone. However since there were only two of them he wanted them to keep pace with each other. So while Jack heard Hiccup's stories of soaring with dragons and Rapunzel's stories of healing a decapitated frog; he was stuck here. On a field making snowflakes while Frozone tried to persuade Elsa to take her stupid gloves off. Jack had been sitting on that field every day of this week, listening to the same thing for an hour.

"Elsa your ready,"

"You know I can't"

"Just try, I'll be right here to help you.

"What if it doesn't work?"

Finally Jack had had enough, " Hey Frostbite!" He shouted to her, " you can't do anything with your gloves on, and frankly I can't either!"

"Jack be nice," Frozone snapped. He looked at Elsa sighed and turned towards Jack, " Why don't you go ahead and show me what you can already do and I can at least use the rest of class to work with you."

FINALLY Jack thought to himself, "What do you want to see?"

"Make something," Frozone replied.

"Anything I want?" Jack asked.

"Surprise me, within reason though,"Frozone said winking at him.

Jack noticed Elsa scrunching her nose at him from behind Frozone, but frankly he couldn't care less. He picked up a fallen branch behind him, took the make-shift staff and began. Ice poured out of the end of it, creating a sort of rink with beautiful swirling patterns in it, on it began to rise ice sculptures, creating a little scene depicting a snowball fight.

"Very good," Frozone said, but his voice gave away his surprise at Jack's talents, even Elsa looked on wide eyed. Jack smirked, " Hey look Frostbite I even made you," he had indeed, there stood a perfect rendition of Elsa frowning at him with her gloves on. Suddenly it cracked and fell away to reveal a different sculpture of her looking incredibly startled as a new statue rose up aiming a snowball at her.

"Wha…"

"Preview" Jack said cutting her off before launching a fair sized snowball at Elsa of Arendelle. The girl looked at him astonished, Jack could see Frozone trying to hold back a laugh.

"You…" she started but Jack cut her off

"Oh come on Elsa don't be so uptight." A snow flake slowly drifted towards her nose and her saw something sparkle in her eyes. Her usually frowning or worried face turned in to a challenging smile which was almost scary.

"Uptight? I'll show you uptight" she pulled off her gloves threw them at Frozone's feet and before he knew it Jack had been thrown back, his face full of a giant snowball. Now this was going to be fun. He sat up beaming, even Frozone was smiling in astonishment, as Elsa pretended to polish her nails triumphantly.

"Challenge accepted" Jack said, and she looked a little surprised clearly not expecting any retaliation. He threw a snowball, ducking behind the statue of her as a shield. She formed an ice shield in her hand to block it and sent one swerving around to hit him. He smashed it with the staff in his hand before swinging it around to form a volley of snowballs falling at her. She raised her ice shield and blasted the other snowballs out of the air with shards of ice of her own. Jack thought in the back of his mind how fascinating it was to see the two different patterns of ice interact. He thought ice was just ice, but nope, hers had her own signature, her own pattern to it, now melting together with his. He really didn't have time to think too much though from the rain of snowballs and ice pellets heading his way, He took his staff and launched himself in to the wind, flying up and creating a giant snow wall as a barrier, but as he made his he noticed she built a fortress of her own. As he sent dozens of snowballs at her rapid fire, they were blocked by her newly formed ice palace. She stood as a tiny target in the doorway of the third story, attempting to break down his barrier with ice of her own to be able to hit him. He was losing a snowball fight for the first time in his life, this was not okay. He only had one choice. He geared up, swung his staff, and sent the entire wall of snow and ice toppling at her ice palace. He noticed her eyes go wide before throwing her arms up to protect from the avalanche. He quickly flew to the side of her ice palace in a corner so she wouldn't see him when she got out. She had formed an ice dome as a sort of force field around her. As she realized the attack was over, it cracked and shattered like glass, showering everything but her. She looked around warily for him, cautiously moving away from the door to the edge of a sort of balcony she had created. He took his chance, he swooped right behind her touching her shoulder. She whirled around towards his hovering figured.

"Hey Frostbite", and he pushed her off the edge of the ice palace. He wasn't fast enough. On her way down she had grabbed hold oh his wrist and he toppled down with her on the already forming ice slide coming down from the castle. The two slid down laughing, Jack looked over towards her and her eyes were bright and her cheeks rosy from the exertion, but her smile was full of joy.

"I knew you could have fun," he said to her. She smiled shyly and tucked one of her loose strands of hair back in to her braid.

"Yeah, I…" Suddenly a red ball landed at their feet and a familiar face ran up to get it.

"Wow what happened here?" Anna asked.

Jack got up, brushed himself off and tossed her the ball to her.

"You know, just your average snowball fight in the middle of September. What are you doing?"

"Oh we're just playing dragon ball, on the other field with the trained dragons."

"Isn't that on the other side of the school?"

"Yeah I threw mine a little far, I was on Toothless with Hiccup so we figured he'd be fast enough to go get it instead of breaking out a new ball. You seem to be having a great time though!"

" Oh Yeah! We…" he looked back to where Elsa had been to find the other girl gone. "where'd she…" Anna cut him off shouting, " I have to get back sorry! But it's awesome that your class is getting fun!" Jack nodded no longer really paying attention to what the redhead was saying. He let the wind carry him up, searching around to see Elsa frantically running back towards where Frozone had been with her gloves. Elsa fell in front of her gloves and began rushing to pull them back on. He flew over to her.

"Hey Frostbite, what are you doing?"

"Nothing" she responded, taking far longer to get the gloves on in her frantic state.

"Why are you putting those back on? Look how much fun we just had, look at what we made!"

"He's right Elsa," Frozone chimed in, " You're both incredibly skilled, don't underestimate yourself, I'm sure you can…"

"I have to go, I'm going to the nurse, I'm sorry," and she began running towards the school. Frozone held out a hand to stop her but just shook his head, accepting the progress that had come today. Jack on the other hand wasn't about to give up so easily. He flew after her, laying down casually in the air and coasting next to her,

" Umm Frostbite, you realize class is that way right? And its not over yet sooo… oh okay we're gonna keep running."

"SHUT UP JACK"

"See I would but you know me, gotta stick to the rules and would you look at that! We still have 5 minutes of class left!"

At that point the she let out a shrill scream as the wind scooped her up and brought her back to where they had started. As she stumbled to catch her footing, it pushed in to the gaps of her gloves slipping them off her hands and they floated right in to Jack's open palm. She took a deep breath.

"Jack give them back."

"Hmmmm, let me think bout that,"

"JACK!"

"I've decided no,"

"FROZONE," but Frozone was long gone to the other side of the field, working with The Human Torch to get rid of all the ice they had created and using it to water the field. She looked around frustrated and helpless.

"Jack give them back now!" She cried

"Oh come on Frostbite," he said hovering closer to her level now.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Shards of ice blasted from her body, Jack felt it like a shockwave as a shard hit him straight in the chest throwing him back. He flew so far as to knock straight in to her castle, which had not been melted down yet. The force of her outburst shook it, shattered it, and Jack watched as crumbling shards of ice toppled towards him.

[Flynn]

"So Blondie, any chance I can skip out on the actual festival? I mean you just need 10 sign ups right?"

"No, because the school is paying for it, if you don't go, they'll be more skeptical and more reluctant to actually let us go next year".

"Can I have someone pretend to be me?"

"No, Mr. Rafiki knows what you look like."

" Oh Come on! What's it gonna take for me not to go? I mean I never even agreed to go in the first place. Our deal was only for me to sign up!"

"You're going or so help me I will tell Mr. Rafiki you've been bullying me in to doing your artwork for you."

"I'll tell him you're lying,"

"I'll tell him to actually make you paint an assignment in front of him,"

"You're bluffing,"

"You don't want to find out,"

"Fine!"

 _Stupid art festival_ Flynn thought to himself. He walked in to history, Rapunzel was in this class with him and he glared at her from across the room as she sat down at her desk with a satisfied smile.

"Ehem!" A chubby man they had never seen before said. "Mr. Smith is absent today so I will be substituting for him today," the man said in a very proper British accent, "you may call me Mr. Cogsworth."

Flynn raised his hand following his normal protocol for substitutes. "Yes," the sub said looking annoyed.

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

To his surprise the substitute huffed and replied, "No you absolutely may not. You think you can fool me in to skipping class? Quite frankly I haven't even finished attendance and you just came from lunch. That was your time, this is my time, so be a big boy and hold it." That caused a wave of snickering to go throughout the class. His plan had failed… his plan never failed. The sub always let him go asking for his name before he went and he would just point at the sheet and tell the sub to call him Flynn Rider. He's stopped memorizing the attendance list after he had figured out that little trick. Shit, now even if he did miraculously think of something, he had no idea when his name would be called. His real name. The sub called through the A's, the C's the D's the E's and suddenly the name Eugene Fitzherebert rang throughout the room. Everyone looked around confused. Flynn stayed silent, his face turning bright red. The sub called out louder "Eugene Fitzherbert!"

Silence. The nerd Belle began to stand and say that there wasn't anyone in the class named Eugene when Flynn finally weakly called out "Here," his voice had cracked. Even better.

"WHAT?" Everyone turned and stared at him utterly confused. He felt his face get a thousand degrees hotter.

"Well its about time" Mr. Cogsworth said with a huff as he checked the name off the clipboard. For the entire rest of the class he could feel everyone's eyes boring in to him and could hear Eugene followed by snickers throughout. He shoved his things in his bag and briskly walked out the minute class ended. The faster everyone forgot about this, the better. But of coarse, that was never going to happen.

"Hey Fitzherbert! Is that really your name?" He heard Snotlout taunt from behind him.

"Well hey, his name at least matches his lame ass personality now," Snotlout's twin sister said coming up next to her brother. Flynn turned towards them spitting back,

"I wouldn't be talking if I were you, at least I wasn't named after the ball of mucus up my mom's nose."

Snotlout shrugged it off easily, grinning back"It's still better than Eugene, at least I don't sound like I belong benched on the math team. Don't worry I'll get you a pair of glasses and suspenders to match."

"Hey!" Flynn heard a familiar voice called out. The blond twins turned to reveal Blondie standing behind them clutching her books. She stared straight at Flynn and said, " Eugene Fitzherbert huh?".

He simply stared back at her surprised that even she was going to jump on the bandwagon to make fun of him now. Instead she just said, " For the record, I like Eugene Fitzherebert much better than Flynn Rider." With that she spun on her heel and walked to her next class.

He stared after her wide eyed, and noticed the two siblings gaping as the watched her walk way. They turned their heads towards him speechless.

"Hey" Eugene said shrugging and he walked off to next period.

[Hiccup]

"Merida I'm telling you you have to if you want to do this."

"I don't even have anything to do it with."

" Don't you carry on you?"

"Does it look like I do?"

"Just use a rubber band,"

"No"

"Fine then I'll work on it by myself and you can pick it up in two weeks."

She glared at him, looked from him to the rubber band on the table, and put her hair up with a groan.

"See? How hard was that?" Hiccup said teasing.

"Very when you have as much hair as I do. Ya you deal with dragons, but this is a beast of its own," Merida replied, " Now what?".

"Now Let me introduce you to Sawyer the power saw."

2 Weeks Later

Hiccup sat looking at the nearly finished bow. All there was left to do was drill the holes to string it, sand it and then polish it. It would have taken a lot less time except for Merida's insistence on being there and learning during every single step. Considering she could only be there every day for an about an hour, and since he had to explain all the steps thoroughly, it took that much longer. Hiccup had finally just settled on making two different bows, one he would make and one for her to make. It worked out better because now she could have a backup in case one broke. He sat working on a different project as he waited for her (some kid wanted his own miniature catapult for undisclosed reasons). She was late as usual considering she was always coming from the barn, but today was exceptional, she seemed to have bailed. He thought about working on both of them himself and playing it off as though that's how far they'd gotten this whole time, but he decided he did not want to face the wrath of an archery legend if his lie was discovered. He finally got up to close up shop when Merida barged through the door… in a dress…and some sort of odd looking bonnet cap. He'd never seen her in a dress before and he had presumed the idea so ridiculous that he had never even given it a thought, and forget about doing anything to her hair. But there she was before him, in a long blue and white muddied dress looking enraged. He tried to suppress his laughter.

"Ummm… You look nice… I guess."

"UGH! I hate my stupid mother! Why cant she get it? I want more in my life than flouncing around in this circus tent looking like the prettiest daisy in the meadow. AHHHH!" She tore off the cap attempting to tame her hair and a wild puff of fire frizzed out.

"She just doesn't understand." She said quieter now, breathing heavy but still wearing her frustrated furrowed brow.

"Okay," Hiccup said, " Come with me."

"What? No!" Merida said, " I want to work on my bow. Show her I'm not gonna be some shy little traditional girl. I'll be like a man if I want to be like a man and I'll be the best man there ever was! Now hand me the drill."

"Whoa there Mulan, I think its in everyone's best interest not to give you anything sharp while you're like this. Besides shop's closed anyways, but come on, I want to show you something. I guarantee it will make you feel better."

She looked at him and his outstretched hand warily. Hesitantly she took it and followed him out.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

[Jack]

Jack opened his eyes hesitantly, he'd panicked and froze (pun 100% intended) in fear at the sight of the crumbling ice castle. His head had smacked in to something on his way down and it had disoriented him enough to simply lay there covering his face with his arms in terror as sheets of ie fell towards him. Jack Frost, killed by a falling glacier, one of the more ironic deaths he was hoping to avoid. He hadn't felt anything though. Maybe this is what death feels like he thought to himself. If so, it was totally overrated. Once he lowered his hands and fluttered his eyes open he saw that he was in some sort of ice dome, similar to the one Elsa had made, the ice dome was covered in snow.

"You okay kid?" Frozone said walking over to him, Jack slowly nodded, accepting the teacher's outstretched hand to help him up. "I've gotta say, I thought your reflexes would be better after watching that snowball fight. We'll have to work on a way to get your reflexes working in dangerous situations, but finding methods the school will approve of is gonna be rough."

"Yeah," Jack responded sheepishly, "Thanks for that, but to be fair sir a snowball fight and near death tend to be a little different."

Frozone chuckled, "You'd be surprised at how similar they can be," he said with a wink, " Now if your flying with gusts of wind gave me any hints, I think you'll be able to get the snow off this dome? Or am I gonna have to do all the heavy lifting?"

"No Sir," Jack responded quickly, and with a wave of his hand, the snow on one side of the dome fell away.

"Perfect," Frozone said and he parted the dome in to two and they walked out in to an open empty field. "I'd say today was a very productive day wouldn't you?"

Jack laughed, " Well even though I almost died, at least we got to do stuff. Where is Frostbite anyway?"

Frozone looked around concerned, "We better let her know we are okay soon, I really don't want her to regress after all the progress she's made today."

 _You and me both buddy_ Jack though to himself. Frozone began running around the side of the giant snow pile, but Jack simply took to the sky. He searched around to find Elsa on her knees on the other side of the dome, which just looked like a giant pile of ice and snow to her. She was frantically digging and crying, " Not again…. Please not again,". He flew down to hover right behind her.

"Awww…. You really do care," Jack said. Elsa whipped around her eyes wide and suddenly threw her arms around his neck. Jack was so surprised he dropped to the ground his legs a little shaky from the shock of the situation. Unsure what to do he stood there for a few awkward moments before they heard Frozone shout, "Elsa!"

She realized what she was doing and just as quickly threw herself off of him. She fixed her hair, and crossed her arms, clearly uncomfortable, as he just shoved his hands in his pockets and pursed his lips.

"Ummm… uh… H H H How are you alright?" She breathed.

"Oh that?" Jack responded scratching his head, " Well you know Frostbite, it takes a lot more than a toppling ice palace to get rid of me."

"Uh huh," Frozone said rolling his eyes at him.

Jack shrugged, " Well I may have had a little help,"

"Don't you worry Elsa," Frozone cut in, " As long as I'm here, you kids have nothing to worry about. I'm here to keep you all safe, and I promise you thats what I'm going to do. Now I've got to get rid of this mess really quick and you all have a class you need to be getting to?"

Frozone set off to work again and the two ice prodigies walked back towards the school

"But seriously, how are you alright?" Elsa asked Jack once more as they approached the building.

"Like I said Frostbite…"

"No, I mean I saw the ice hit you. I saw it go to your heart. It should be frozen. You should be frozen…you should be dead, or dying at least."

"Well sorry to disappoint. Look I don't know what you want me to tell you. I live and breathe ice Frostbite. I'm alive cause the Man in the Moon put me here…"

"Wait the moon?"

"Its a long story, anyway ice is kinda my thing. Trust me ice to the heart, kinda just like a mosquito buzzing around your ears. Annoying as hell, but probably wont do much…unless you get malaria…you know what? Lets change the bug to a fly." He joked trying to lighten the mood a bit, but she simply continued to stare at him in a sort of shocked wonder.

"Well… I guess you can have these back now that class is over," he said, handing her back the gloves that had almost been the death of him. She timidly took them from him, seeming incredibly unsure what to do in the situation.

"It was nice to finally meet the fun side of you Frostbite," Jack said before he walked towards the school, leaving her clutching her gloves and staring after him in the field. He didn't know it, but that was the first time she had truly laughed in years.

[Eugene]

Eugene could not believe he was standing at the front entrance of the school at 6:30 on a December morning, and that too for an art field trip. That was his life right now. Shivering with 7 art geeks about to board a bus and Blondie was nowhere in sight. He'd been 100% duped. He was gonna give her hell for making him sign up for this, wake up this early, and then not even bothering to show up herself to the stupid thing she had blackmailed him in to. As the bus pulled up he had begun mapping out his potential escape routes to get out of the trip himself when he saw her figure bobbing in the distance. She looked completely disheveled, pulling a large bag behind her, he couldn't decide whether to be happy or sad. As she ran up towards him out of breath he commented

"Nice of you to join us Blondie, I was beginning to think you were going to leave me all by myself."

She looked at him, a new light in her eyes that brightened her face even this early in the day, " Are you kidding?! I wouldn't miss this for the world!" This was the happiest he had ever seen her, and she looked…gorgeous. Her green eyes were sparkling, the gold rings in them seemed to stand out in them more today looking like sunshine on a meadow. What was he thinking? This was Rapunzel. Sweatshirt wearing, short, art geek Rapunzel. Sure she'd been pretty when he'd first seen her, but then he'd gotten to know her. Sure she was sweet but also very annoying, annoying and cunning as didn't deserve someone like him. No, Eugene thought to himself, she deserves much better. They began boarding the bus, there were few enough people that everyone took a seat to themselves. Blondie was right across from him, it was gonna be long ride and he would need someone to talk to, her being the only one he knew. Mr. Rafiki took count, " Huh, we are all here except for…"

Suddenly there was a tapping on the bus doors, they opened and on strode an incredibly beautiful girl with thick luscious red hair, long legs displayed in a small green mini skirt, and slim waist revealed by a purple crop top.

"Ah Ariel, glad you could make it," Mr. Rafiki said to her.

"Sorry I was late," she said. She looked around. There were several open seats but she made eye contact with Eugene and he noticed her cheeks burned red, nearly similar to her hair. She made her way over and asked, "Is anyone sitting here?" Her voice was incredibly sweet.

Eugene dumb-foundedly shook his head no, and the girl took the spot next to him. He pulled out every charm he could think of, going as far as to drape an arm over the top of the seat, which with skilled conversation and maybe a little turbulent driving would lead to it calmly resting on her shoulders. If all else failed he would definitely be pulling his secret weapon on this one: the smolder. All the while he was completely ignorant to the red face and frown of another figure directly across from him.

[Hiccup]

"This smells worse than the barn," Merida complained as they walked in to the pens.

"Just come on," Hiccup said laughing. When they reached the night fury he heard Merida suck in a breathe and he couldn't help but smile to himself.

"Merida meet Toothless, Toothless, Merida."

The dragon quirked its head to the side at the sight of a new visitor.

"He's beautiful," she breathed inching closer, admiring the sleek smooth scales of his onyx body, the only change in coloring being the whites of his eyes. A shining black beauty of lean tough muscle and 5 inch talons, definitely more daring than her own steed.

"You wanna go for a ride?" Hiccup asked.

"Can we?!" Her eyes shone with excitement. She asked like a giddy toddler which only made his smile widen.

"Well he's mine, so I don't see why not."

They led Toothless out and Hiccup mounted first and reached out a hand to help Merida up. Toothless had taken to Merida surprisingly well, allowing her to touch him much faster than anyone else Hiccup had brought to ride with him.

"Hold on," was all Hiccup manage to say before Toothless took off in to a run, he unfurled his wings and then pounded them, once, twice, and they were off, soaring higher and higher in to the air. Hiccup heard Merida yelp in surprise before tightening her grip on Hiccup for a moment, before relaxing a bit and giving a whoop of excitement. Toothless responded by spiraling up, and then barreling downwards before snapping his wings out right before hitting the water of the vast lake beneath them.

"Show off," Hiccup muttered to himself, which earned him a well angled splash of lake water from Toothless that missed Merida completely. He could hear her laughing behind him, and as they soared through the clouds, the mountains, and the fields, their laughter and excitement never ceased.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

[Jack]

After the snowball fight, Elsa had almost completely transformed around him. She laughed freely, joked, talked ( she just didn't shut up now), and even freely used magic. He learned she was slightly allergic to flowers, loved the color blue, was obsessed with anything chocolate related, and believed geese were the spawn of Satan. Almost every field training ended up in an epic snow battle. Frozone was helping them discover the extents of their powers, each class brought something new to the table. The two of them were an even match at the moment, though they rarely had snowball fights against each other, rather they worked together to try to beat Frozone. ( They had not yet won. Not even once, not even almost). "Dude it was so awesome," Jack recounted to Hiccup, " Frozone is such a beast man, he literally made the colosseum around us, and then sat like Caesar as we tried to get up to him past his army of snow creatures. I almost flew out and got him from the outside but then he saw me and made a ceiling right from the spot I almost got out from."

"Ugh your field training sounds so much better than mine, Zazu doesn't let us do anything. Toothless got so bored he almost ate one of the training sheep. He has a bit of a bored snacking problem we need to work on. But man I still cant believe you got Elsa to use her powers. I've known her since freshman year and none of the teachers could even get her to take the damn gloves off, much less make a snowflake."

" My presence has been known to cause wonders. Yeah but she's annoyingly good considering you all say she's never used her powers before." Hiccup began helping Jack to strategize for the next battle using his knowledge of flying. This eventually led to an intense debate about who would win in a fight: Toothless or Frozone with Jack's flight. The debate continued to the table where everyone began putting in their words of wisdom, though no-one seemed to be on Frozone's side except Jack and Kristoff. Mid-debate Jack felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He checked it to find Elsa had sent him a video of a man attempting to ice skate, then flailing around with such determination not to fall before landing flat on his back. He burst out laughing and showed it around the table, but Anna just looked at him with a half- hearted smile.

"S-S-She talks to you?" The red head asked softly.

"Yeah, she's really cool, super funny. We went to the park this one time and…"

"She hangs out with you?" The redhead interrupted, a pained look in her eyes. Jack didn't know what, but clearly he had said something wrong.

"Umm, yeah, I was actually gonna go catch up with her in a bit, why?" He asked starting to be a little concerned but still hoping for the best.

"Oh nothing," the girl responded looking at her twiddling thumbs, "Did she happen to say anything about me?"

"Umm… not really…sorry… I can ask.."

"No, thats okay, I don't want to impose,"

"No really," he said genuinely, " We're actually going to the cafe across the street after school, you're more than welcome to…"

"No," the red head said looking at him seemingly dejected, "You're the first person she's opened up to in years. I haven't seen her this happy in so long. Just please don't let anything ruin that, not even me, okay?"

Jack simply nodded his head. He didn't know what was going on, but he would sure as hell find out. Shouldn't be too hard considering he and Elsa sat next to each other every class, and talked for a fair amount of time outside of it too, he would eek it out of her eventually. After school the two of them headed over to a nearby coffee shop to work on an applications project together. On the way there Elsa began explaining to him her newest development where some of her sculptures would animate without her thinking about moving them, they were just alive.

"Hmm. So other than Ice Queen Elsa the Dress Maker, we can add Life Bringer to your ever growing list of titles?"

"Oh please, you're just jealous,"

"Frostbite, I can fly, I choose that over dressmaking any day, although I would look stunning in one."

"That can be arranged,"

"Dont you dare….well I mean as long as the dress doesn't come to life, that would be awkward on soooo many levels."

"Shut up" she said giving him a friendly shove, to which he let loose a gust of wind, blowing some snow at her and unleashing some of her hair from its braid. Her eyes twinkled even as she tried to scrunch up her face in anger. He noticed little snow flakes falling around him and looked up to see his own personal snow cloud over his head.

"Hey!" He was about to say, but the voice that came was much higher than his, and said with a very different tone and context. He turned and waved at the approaching Anna, but noticed Elsa go eerily still next to him, he looked to see her face stricken with panic. Anna's face fell, as she too watched her sister's reaction, but Jack's attention had turned to something else. The single cloud that had been above his head was now expanding and beginning to swirl out of control.

"Elsa!" He shouted in warning but she didn't seem to hear him, her eyes still locked on her sister. He looked over to Anna questioningly but the other girl simply shrugged her shoulders equally terrified and helpless. He grabbed the blonde's shoulders and looked her straight in the eye, gently shaking her, " Elsa!", she seemed to snap out of her trance and looked up at the clouds and then at him horrified.

"No…no" she cried before pulling out of his grasp and looking around at her work clearly unsure what to do. Think Jack Think! He launched himself in to the air closer to the cloud, which was now ascending as it expanded, and he began churning the wind in the opposite direction, attempting to dissipate the growing storm as much as he could. It worked a little, but the storm was continuing to grow more violent fairly quickly. He looked down to see Elsa running in the opposite direction of where they had been, Anna beginning to go after her. He touched down next to the red head,

"What's happening?!"

"I don't know! I just thought… I dont know, but we can't leave her alone, not now!"

"I'll go talk to her," he said, Anna began to protest but Jack cut in,

" I don't know why, but she doesn't seem to be controlling her powers very well right now, she cant hurt me, but you… just get inside okay?"

Anna nodded at him and he took off after Elsa. He called her name to the wind and it carried him to her. She was still running, her sleeves pulled over her hands, arms crossed with her hands shoved in her armpits. He coasted next to her once again as he had weeks ago at their first snowball fight.

"Elsa, what's going on?"

Rather than responding she simply kept running, zigzagging in a silent effort to lose him.

"You can't outrun me Frostbite,"

She threw a few harmless shards of ice his way as she turned a corner.

"You leave me no choice," he said and he swooped down and lifted her up, she yelped at the sudden loss of the ground and flailed her arms and legs, as they ascended higher.

"LET ME GO!"She shouted. The blizzard of flurries thickened, clearly this was not helping.

"Okay" he shrugged and let her fall, her scream echoing, he fell at the same pace as her however and caught her after a few feet, now facing her, she clung to his shirt.

He couldn't help but chuckle a little, " Don't worry frostbite, I wont let anything happen to you. Now you need to calm down and take control of this storm."

"Jack I can't…."

"Yes, you can."

"You don't get it, I haven't used my powers as much as you have. I don't know how. There is no way I can!"

" Elsa, you are one of the most powerful people I've ever met, I've seen you do it before and you can do it now. Feel it inside yourself. You've done things you've never done before in class, just do the same thing now. You know how to control it. You can do it." He said encouragingly.

"I…I…" He could see her looking around at the storm, terrified and overwhelmed by herself, by her own capability. He held her face and touched his forehead against hers, forcing her to look at him. He looked in to the deep ocean blue of her eyes, so vastly different, from the pale contrast of everything else. He stared in to them and lost himself but vaguely heard himself saying,

"Don't look at it, look at me, Okay?Uhhh…we are… We are in class! Yes! We are in class and uhh… we need toooo… be able to find Frozone around us. You started it to hide us, but now we need to come out. So, we need to clear this storm to beat him. Try anything you want, you can't hurt me Frostbite."

He saw her slowly shake her head okay, she closed her eyes and he noticed her scrunch up her face in concentration. He noticed her nose had tiny little freckles that came together like constellations when she scrunched her face like this. Her lashes were long and dark, draping over her lids like feathers, an beautiful contrast to the platinum blonde on her head. His eyes moved down to stare at her mouth. Dark red lips, on the thinner side but pleasant for her face, it added to the mischievous nature he saw in her at her best times. Suddenly her eyes flew open, and he frantically lifted his head and looked around to make it seem like he hadn't just been intensely staring at her. He noticed the storm had dissipated, the skies around them still gray, but calm, slowly clearing up bit by bit. She looked around breathing hard, astonishment in her eyes.

"I…I did it."

"Told you so," he replied back.

"Shut up" she said but she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, burying her face in his chest. He floated surprised for a second before slowly wrapping his arms around her and hugging her back.

[Rapunzel]

She was in paradise, color graced everything from the murals on the walls, to the stone carved sculptures and stained glass windows on the tops of all the buildings, to the grand mosaic that made up the grounds of the square. Strings of flowers had been hung above them in a rainbow of colors on the pathway towards the entrance of the square, and several colorful banners hung, advertising different events. Seeing as there wasn't much of a winter here (much to Jack's dismay she had noticed), most of the festival had been set up outside, with a few buildings assigned for very specific programs. Rapunzel had barely been able to control herself on the way there from the hotel. She had never seen so much art strewn about the streets, here everything was a masterpiece, from the portraits and canvases on disply along the pathways, to the buildings themselves with their delicately chiseled and painted flowers and designs and occasional spray paint on the lower walls. Her eyes grew wider and wider as they travelled farther in to the depths of it, giddy to get out of the confines of the bus, and it to the air swirling with color, feeling the raw emotion of each brush and pencil stroke out in the open, free at last.

"Oh I looove art too. I've been waiting for this trip since school started." She heard a now familiar voice say from her right. She couldn't help but roll her eyes, but then she shyly glanced at the seat across from her to see Eugene leaning "casually" against the bus window flirting up a storm. He was contorted in a way that could not have been comfortable, but apparently it was supposed to be appealing. He also had his lips puckered in a really odd fashion that she guessed was also supposed to be attractive but she could not for the life of her figure out how. He frankly looked great normally, really great in fact, but the antics seemed to be working on the other girl who was blushing profusely and even gave him a small peck on the cheek. Rapunzel looked away and shook her head. She didn't know why she felt a tug in her gut at that, she didn't expect anything from him after all. He was just a boy she was helping cheat in a class so that she could be here, nothing less and definitely nothing more. She looked out the window. Today was going to be beautiful and no-one was going to ruin that for her. She took in a deep breath of fresh cool air as she stepped off the bus. She stood amongst the group impatiently as Mr. Rafiki passed out the guides and told them the schedule for the day.

"You must all stay within the stone walls surrounding the town, there will be guards at the gates, so don't even try sneaking out. The clocktower is our meeting point, we meet there for lunch at 12:00 and back again at 8:00 for the bus to take us back to the hotel. Other than that just have fun, let your wings carry you where you wish!"

Eugene sidled up next to her,

"This better be worth my time Blondie."

She smirked to herself eyeing him sideways.

"Oh I'm sure you'll be plenty entertained. You LOOOOOOVE art, remember?" She said and then mocked the way he had puckered his lips on the bus. She laughed as he glared at her.

[Merida]

Merida marveled at the finished bow laying in her hands. Her bow, that she made. The firm glossy wood in her hands, the grip hugging her fingers back. She'd strung it herself as well and her fingers were itching to test it out. Hiccup came up behind her as she stared at it.

"Not bad for your first bow, and hey, now I have one too."

"Ya shoot?"

"Occasionally," he said shrugging, "I'm no 7 time champion or anything, but my dad forced me to try out a lot of weapons before Toothless, and safe to say archery was the better option since it involved very little close contact."

"Oh I'm sure ya could hold yer own,"

"Now maybe, but trust me, back then I was as scrawny as they come. My dad still says that the only reason Toothless probably didn't eat me on sight was because he would have just gotten a mouth full of bones."

She couldn't help but laugh a little, and he smiled.

"We should shoot sometime," she said, " with my help you could be an archer from the sky, definitely a force to be reckoned with. Maybe you'll even get 2nd at a tournament."

"Why not first?"

"Yers truly, can't have ya having a dragon and being the best archer, that's just not fair."

"Well, why wait?"

"Whatdya mean?"

"Well…" Hiccup said looking around and plucking a large and unused dart board off the wall and sticking it on to an old easel dumped there by the art department.

"We have an open field outside, we can take these out for a test run now if you've got some time. That way if anything is wrong we can just leave them here and make the necessary adjustments today or tomorrow. Best to test it, the tournament is only a few weeks away and you coming in second because of my bow is far too high a price to pay."

"Speaking of price!", she reached in to her bag and pulled out an envelope, " here is your payment."

"It's really okay" he said.

"Whatdya mean it's okay? This was our deal, and I will fulfill my end."

"Well," he said scratching the back of his head, " technically I didn't even make it, so it feels weird taking money for it."

"Well then take it for being my teacher."

"I don't know,"

"OH just take it!" She said taking his hand and shoving the envelope in to it. In grabbing his hand her fingers brushed his equally calloused ones and it left them tingling. _Weird_ she thought to herself. He had shoved the envelope in his pant pocket and picked up his bow and slung it around his shoulder, grabbing the easel in both hands.

"Ready?" He asked her.

"But we don't have any arrows," she said. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something but instead he just put down the easel, put up a finger indicating for her to wait, and went to the back. She heard him rummage around a bit before emerging with a black duffel in his hands.

"In the excitement of finishing the bow I completely forgot about these."

She took the black duffel from him and unzipped it, revealing a set of brand new arrows. Sleek, solid, and the same dark color of her bow, the points perfectly fashioned she presumed to be as aerodynamic as possible. The ends of the arrows had a startling mix of red and orange feathers, most likely from a Hearthwing she guessed; an uncommon bird with feathers that in the sun, gave the bird a fiery glow, a hue that she noticed perfectly matched her hair. As she turned one over in her hand, she noticed at the top etched in to the wood was an "M" within her family symbol.

"I changed the shape of the point a bit from the traditional arrow to minimize air resistance, as well as the angling of the feathers at the end. They should be tough enough to…"

"They're beautiful." She breathed, " Why?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

" You made such a beautiful bow, I figured it was only fair to have a set of arrows that would do it justice. Plus I figured you were good enough that it was about time you have a signature. With these arrows, there'll be no question in anyone's mind about who just beat them."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" She said so excited that she jumped and threw her arms around him. He paused for a second before hugging her back and saying

"You're very welcome." She absorbed the hug and the feeling of him for a few moments longer than she had intended to before remembering the bow and arrows and jumping down. She grabbed the bow and used her newfound nervous energy to look as giddy as possible holding the arrows.

"Let's try them!" She exclaimed. He swept his arm in an arc and bowed in a grand gesture motioning towards the door.

"After you." He said. Little did she know the motion was to hide his increasingly reddening cheeks.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

[Elsa]

"Go on… go" he prodded her.

"I can't, what if…"

"That's why I'm letting you wear gloves this time."

"But Jack, she's better off if…"

" No she's not. She's been suffering just as much as you have, trust me. Nothing is worse than not being able to connect with those you love." His voice had taken on a tone Elsa didn't think he was capable of. He sounded… pained.

"Anyway," he continued seeming to shake it off, " didn't that rock dwarf thing tell you that it was fear that you were supposed to avoid? Well clearly this glove thing didn't work since you still shot me,"

"Well I didn't have them on then,"

"But our actions are driven by feelings, now that I've thoroughly charmed you frostbite I don't have to worry about it. You can control them around me and Frozone cause you know you can't hurt us. So now we're gonna do this my way. You're gonna meet her, if something happens I'll be there to protect her, so you don't have to be scared around her.

"She probably hates me."

"She's Anna for God's sake, now are you done with the dumb excuses? Cause here she comes."

"Jack I can't…Jack!"

"ANNA!" She gave the pale haired boy a frustrated terrified glare, before facing her sister. She'd grown up to look almost exactly like their mother. Elsa found herself stuck to her spot. Her sister… beautiful, pure, full of life… everything she could destroy in a second. She felt a hard bump on her back and stumbled forward, she assumed the impact being from Jack's elbow. Maybe he's right, she thought. I'm Elsa, I've built palaces, defeated snow monsters, controlled blizzards… I can handle this. She began tugging at the fingers of the all too familiar gloves.

"Umm.. Hi, Elsa," She heard her sister's voice say. She realized all she had been doing was standing there dumbfounded for a good thirty seconds. Words. Right, those were a thing she would have to say.

Finally she spoke, "Ummm…Hi. Uhhhh…Well…Jack and I were wondering, well I was wondering, well I think he's coming, but it was his idea…Not that I didn't want to do it! I also really thought it was a good idea, so… oh god." She crossed her arms utterly embarrassed, this was not going well. Not even a little bit. She felt a gust of wind push her farther forward, and she shot a glare back at Jack who pretended to be really interested in the ceiling for a few seconds before looking at her and urging her forward. She turned back to face Anna and the hope filling the other girl's eyes grounded her. In a completely steady voice she heard herself say, " Will you come to the cafe with me after school?" She watched Anna's eyes light up, tearing up a bit too.

"There's nothing I would love more." She said in response. The two stood there for a few moments looking at each other. Great! She thought…now what?

"Ummm… Alright then, I'll see you there." She spun on her heel and sped away, the hallways, lockers and people just a blur. She vaguely heard Jack shouting a few formalities to the other two she had just left. Her breath was coming quickly, a little too quickly, she needed to sit. She chose a small divet in the wall and pressed her back against the cool brick. She slowly slid in to a crouch covering her mouth and letting the tears out. They were years coming. She heard Jack calling her name, but couldn't find the urge to call back. It seemed only right, the end to her solitude should come alone.

For the rest of the day Elsa was anxious, but in a way she had never felt before… she was actually excited. She finally had something to look forward to, something to look forward to with someone else. Once school was out she grabbed her things grabbed Jack's arm and sped out.

"Where are we going!?" He shouted when they were outside of the school.

"To the cafe…" she said utterly confused. Had he forgotten his own plan?

"Wouldn't it just be easier to walk with Anna from the school?". Elsa bit her lip, wow she had really been out of the whole socializing game for way too long.

"Well I didn't tell her to meet me at any specific place in the school, just the cafe."

"Well what class does she end in," Jack asked, "We can just go and grab her from there or near there." Elsa felt her face heat up as she stayed silent.

"You don't know do you?" Jack said sounding slightly annoyed. She shook her head embarrassed.

"Wow Frostbite, you really take this whole avoiding thing to a whole new level. Anyway I think she mentioned during lunch she had a few teachers to meet after school. Just text her that you'll meet her there." Elsa nodded her nerves shooting up even more facing her lack of social skills.

She stood in front of the cafe wringing her hands Jack standing there casually watching her pace.

"By the way I'm ready to hear the beloved phrase, 'you were right' any time Frostbite."

"Yeah, well we still have to see how it goes," she said to him.

"It'll be fine, trust me," Jack said with his usual carefree smile. Suddenly something past her grabbed his attention and put him visibly on edge, like a dog that just saw a squirrel. His face twisted with a look of fear and concern that she had never thought him being capable of.

"Jack… Jack, what is it?" She said turning around to look behind her but saw nothing, just the usual sight of traffic and people bustling around at rush hour. When she turned back towards him, he was gone. He left her. Had this been part of his plan all along, to say he'd be there and ditch her at the last second? He had looked genuinely concerned about something however.

"ELSA!" She heard a chirpy voice call from behind her. She froze he heart racing, her instinct was to run. There was no safety, no guard, there was nothing she could do. Snap out of it Elsa! She thought to 're not a coward are you? You are Elsa of Arendelle. You have controlled entire weather systems, you can control yourself enough to not accidentally murder your sister with a popsicle. She clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and turned to face what she had both feared and hoped for the most ever since she was young.

"Hi… Anna."

[Eugene]

He'd had his doubts, plenty of them, millions of them in fact, but this art thing wasn't actually all that bad. There were tutorials, games where you could compete in sculpture making, drawing , painting, or just throwing color at each other (paintball art and actual paintball were also options). Since culinary art was also included there were so many free samples of foods he'd never heard of calling his taste buds in every direction. After two invigorating games of paintball and a pathetic paintball painting (if was supposed to be the sun but just looked more like a cheese wheel that had hair) Eugene decided to actually try and learn some art. The tutorial on drawing landscapes seemed easy enough at first, but by the end Eugene's piece didn't even look like it could pass as an abstract version of whatever that artist had originally drawn. He strolled around gorging himself on free samples, he'd tried some sweet that he couldn't pronounce, it had some kind of different fruit jam within a flaky buttery puff , with white chocolate and some type of flavored cream. He didn't know what it was, but he made a mental note to go back to the stall and find out, after grabbing a few more of course. He might have to grab Blondie one too considering he was only here because of her, and he'd noticed she had a huge sweet tooth. Where is she anyway? He wondered to himself, taking another bite of the puff. He hadn't seen her all day, he strolled through the pottery, jewelry making, and sewing sections before making his way to the painting area where he saw a familiar trail of blond hair. He found Rapunzel hard at work on a canvas meant as a free paint area where world-renowned artists would come around to aide and critique the amateurs. He noticed a blank canvas next to her and walked over to start a masterpiece of his own.

"This one taken?" He asked as he strolled over. She didn't even look at him but and she shook her head he could tell she was smirking.

"You? You want to actually do art?"

"Hey, you know if I'm forced to be here anyway, might as well right? Brush up on my skills for when I actually need to start making my own art for class."

He noticed Rapunzel looking around, "Okay, where is that girl you're trying to impress? There is no way you'd be here otherwise".

The girl named Ariel had hung on his arm for a bit making the dullest conversation that he had not the slightest problem tuning out. He'd thought she was incredibly beautiful when she'd sat next to him on the bus, but after actually spending time with her he realized she was actually a complete naive ditz (for some reason she had random made up names for a bunch of different objects, he had no idea what that was about). After a while she'd left him to watch a dark haired blue-eyed flutist in the performing arts section ( A section Eugene firmly avoided).

Eugene simply shrugged to Rapunzel's accusation, " Turns out she's really not my type."

He picked up the palette and the brush and had barely begun when he heard a voice cry, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" From right behind him, almost startling the brush right out of his hand.

"MONSIEUR! Are you trying the murder the brush, the canvas, or my poor old soul? Because you'll succeed at all three if you keep at it like that!" An old man shouted at him. "You must caress the canvas with your brush delicately! It's the most beautiful blank space to create to be respected and treated delicately, not hacked at like it's the last carcass on a deserted island!"

Another younger man with a seemingly more flamboyant nature walked over to them. "Oh Rudolph," the younger artist said to the other, "don't be so harsh on the boy. He just needs a hand of guidance is all." The young artist came around behind Eugene, holding his hand with the paintbrush in one hand and his other hand rested on Eugene's opposite shoulder. "Thats it," he said, his voice right by Eugene's ear, "like this, caress the canvas, the way one might caress a lover." Eugene was thoroughly uncomfortable, he didn't think he'd ever felt more awkward in his life, and to make it worse he noticed Rapunzel dying of trying to hold in her laughter next to him. He glared at her but it only made her seem to laugh harder. The other man, presumably Rudolph rolled his eyes at his colleagues obvious flirtation, grabbed the collar of the artist's shirt and pulled him backwards shouting, "Charles they are only in High School, don't be a pedophile. No-one likes them and there are 0 perks."

Charles humphed clearly upset about their current age, he winked at Eugene with a, " Give me a call when you're the magic age eh?"

"What are we gonna do with you?" Rudolph grumbled looking away from the artist, his eyes landing on Rapunzel's canvas. His eyes lit up.

"You my flower, what a masterpiece you have created." Eugene had meant to look earlier but had gotten carried away in conversation and then being attacked by one very grouchy and one very desperate artist. He meant to just glance over, but when he saw the painting the image engulfed him. A beautiful blue sky with mountainous landscape made up the background, the deep hues giving a calming yet mystical feel to the painting. Shimmering water, the waves breaking up the light of a full moon that gleamed low in the sky. The front of a small wooden boat had been painted so that the viewer felt that thats where they were sitting, a pair of hands cupped at the base of the canvas as though they were your own. That wasn't even the most magical portion, the entire painting had intricate lanterns lighting the sky, the hands looking as though they had just released the nearest one. It was truly incredible.

"What conservatory do you study at? I must give my regards to your teacher, what skill you possess."

"I-I don't attend a conservatory, just a normal high school." Rapunzel said, Eugene could see her blushing, she seemed unused to such praise. Rudolph was doubly impressed to see that, and even passed her his card, saying that she truly had a future and to give him a call if she wanted his help getting ahead. As the artists left, Eugene walked over behind her to get an even better look at her painting. She was standing frozen, staring at the man's card, holding it with both hands as if she were afraid it would blow away and she would lose it.

"You know Blondie," Eugene said from behind her, seeming to snap her out of her trance, "I usually hate giving compliments, make people's head bigger than they need to be, you know the whole shebang, but this is actually really good. What's your talent anyway that you can do this stuff? Can you recreate any images you see, make anything you see appear?"

She shook her head, zipping the card up in to her wallet, and safely storing in to her bag before picking up her paintbrush and touching up the painting as she responded to him,

" Art's actually just a hobby for me, my talent's got nothing to do with it. How about you? What's your talent, stealing?".

"Well kinda actually," he said scratching the back of his neck, " If I can see something, I can teleport it to or away from myself." He demonstrated now holding Rapunzel's paintbrush in his hand as she looked at her hand startled and confused. When she saw him holding it she made her little face where she scrunched up her nose with a little frown that had a smile breaking through it. It made him feel warm inside even as she snatched the brush away from him, he simply chuckled.

"Well, all that talent considered, you're a really bad thief," she retorted, contemplatively turning the brush over in her hand.

"Excuse me?" He asked defensively.

"Well you wouldn't even be here if you were a good one."

At that Eugene was at a loss for words. So he simple teleported her brush back in to his hands and launched a smatter of paint at her.

[Merida]

The arrows flew like a dream. The set was the best piece she'd ever worked with, the bow nearly weightless but more precise and deadly than any she had worked with before. She fired off round after round, Hiccup resting by a tree nearby, content to just watch. Toothless resting happily next to him. Once she'd fired a few rounds, she decided to try it mounted on her horse. When that did not prove challenging in the least, Hiccup asked her if she'd want to try it from the skies. Now that was an opportunity she was not about to pass up. With Hiccup steering Toothless in front of her Merida began to practice shooting from the skies, it took a few tries to get used to the distance, the angles, and the wind resistance, but after a few rounds she managed to get bulls-eyes even from the air. She'd never felt more fierce in her life, shooting not only from above, but from a freakin dragon. The gods the only enemies above her, her territory sprawling below, she felt more like Warrior Princess than ever. After a while they returned to the ground again allowing her to perfect some new trick shots she'd been working on. Now with the sun setting, she notched an arrow in her bow, with a slight pull back she fired an arrow straight up in to the air, it made its way down to perfectly land in one of the arrow slots in the sheath on her back.

" I give that a 9 out of 10" Hiccup commented from the side.

"What?!" Merida shouted at him , "How in the world was that only a 9? Is that a challenge?"

"Against you?" He asked, " Hell no, I have no urge to die today. Its just a fact that on execution it was not a 10 out of 10."

"Why the hell not?"

" Because that sheath is a beginners sheath, since that is what I am. It has arrow slots. It would have been a 10 out of 10 if it had landed in the exact slot you took it out of."

"It did!"

"Nope slightly to the left."

"Slightly to the left my foot," Merida muttered and she took the sheath off her back, but to her surprise, he was right. There lay the arrow, two slots to the left of where she had taken it from. She scowled at him, " Well its still better than anyone else could have done,"

"But alas," he sighed, " its not better than anything YOU could have done. My 9/10 stands."

"I hate you."

"Probably" he said at which point Hiccup went to lean back casually but flinched and spazzed to the side as Toothless jabbed him with his tail right in Hiccups pressure point. Hiccup tried to push him away, but Toothless kept nudging his head at him, slightly nipping Hiccup.

"Toothless!….Toothless stop! GAHHH," Hiccup shouted scrambling up and began pretend escaping around the tree. Merida watched and giggled, calling out, " See? Even your dragon thinks you were being a prat!".

At that Hiccup stopped and looked at her, giving her a goofy smile so he didn't even see Toothless's tail come swinging behind him. Merida tried to call out and give him a warning, but it was too late. The dragon tail hit the boy square in the back and he launched forward straight at her, she tried to get out of the way but he still knocked in to her shoulder, toppling the two of them on to the ground. Merida looked up in to a pair of deep warm Hazel eyes as they gazed down at her, seeing a joyous reflection of herself she'd never found in a mirror of her own. He smelled like stables, the leather collar of his jacket was soft in her hand, his body warm, the grass a prickly sort of softness… she could have stayed there forever.

Until a sharp voice biting the word "MERIDA," had them both clamoring upright. In a dark green gown, stood her mother, the principal of the school.

"Care to explain," her mother asked, though it didn't sound like a question.

" Oh mother it was nothing, I was just practicing and the boy's dragon hit us."

"You've never practiced with someone before."

"I…"

"Sorry Madame," Hiccup interrupted, " I just wanted to watch to see if there were any last minute adjustments that needed to be made, might as well fix them now and perfect it, there is no excuse for shoddy craftsmanship as Mr. Tadashi says. As for your unfortunate entrance time, well, my dragon has an affinity for pushing people around." As if right on cue Toothless came up behind him nudging Hiccup's back with his head causing the boy to stumble forward.

Merida watched her mother give him the examination look down, and turning her head to also glance at Toothless her eyebrows now raised.

"The Night Fury and Mr. Tadashi you say? Then you must be his prodigy Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III?"

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III? Merida thought to herself. That is this scrawny little thing's name? Though considering some of the earlier pictures of him that she had seen, she supposed he fit the name better now than he had before High School. Oh puberty really was a gem sometimes. Hiccup simply gave a nod with a "That's me."

Her mother clasped her hands in front of her like any proper lady, " Yes well your reputation does exceed you, you have created some fine accomplishments for this school. I presume you are the boy who has been helping my daughter with her new bow?"

"Yes Ma'am. Don't worry I think this is some of my best work yet, though your daughter would probably still win any competition even with a toy bow and toothpick arrows." He responded giving her a smile before immediately wiping it off his face and looking down awkwardly.

"I see," her mother said with a quirked brow, "Well carry on if you wish it, but make sure you pickup after yourselves, don't forget these are school grounds and will be respected as such."

"Yes ma'am" Merida heard Hiccup sputter but her mother had already turned on her heel and walked inside. Merida stared after her in mother was one of the quickest people in the world to jump to conclusions, and after finding a boy literally on top of her, her mother was just fine with it? That could only mean one thing. Her mother actually liked Hiccup, what if she thought her and Hiccup were a thing? What if other people thought that too? Oh no… no no no no no that was not the idea she wanted to give anyone.

Hiccup leaned towards her and said, " Wow, you're mom's really uptight isn't she? I can't really tell, but I think she might hate me."

If only Merida thought to herself.

"So," Hiccup asked, " Wanna try a few more rounds? I think it would be really cool to see if you could hit the target if Toothless does a…"

We need to make this clear cut and stop it now Merida thought to herself. She didn't need any senseless rumors starting up about her, especially with the tournament so close, she needed to focus.

"You know what," she said cutting him off mid-sentence, " I think I'm good for today," she said collecting a few scattered arrows, giving him a curt goodbye, and speeding away. She heard his slightly confused goodbye behind her but her fear pushed her farther and faster away.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

[Jack]

The icy air cut his face as Jack let the wind carry him. _Jaaaaack_ the voice that haunted him called once again. His ears perked up and he flew towards where he thought the sound might be coming from. He'd been flying for some time now, speeding in the direction of the voice. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and hugged the side of a building with no windows before touching down in an alleyway in the city. He had better stay unnoticed or he'd never hear the end of it at school. He walked down the alleyway and joined the crowd of bustling city-goers. He didn't know where he was going, but the last place the voice had led him was here, so here was where he would search. _Jaaaaaaack_ There it was again. He frantically began pushing through the crowd, he didn't know what the voice was or who it belonged to but he could feel that it meant something to him. He felt his heart jump and pang at every call. It was coming with childish laughs now as well, like it was taunting him. _Jaaaaaaack_ he spun in the direction of the sound, but now it seemed as if it were coming from all directions. _Jaaaack….. haha you're funny jack….cut it out!…..hehehe do it again, do it again!…..you're funny Jack….Jaaaaaaack…Jaaaaaaack._ Jack kept frantically spinning around, trying to pinpoint the direction of the voice but it kept changing. J _aaaaaaaack_. As he spun in the most current direction of the sound his eyes widened as a man on a bike rode straight at him. He tried to move out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough. As he made to move in reflex, he found there was no need to. The man passed right through the left half of his body. Jack sucked in his breath and felt a chill go down his spine. He grabbed his shoulder and aggressively patted it to make sure it was still there, still a solid. His heart was racing now. He threw an arm out in panic at a passerby and whacked them in the back.

"Hey kid! Whatchya tryna do?" His victim shouted back at him.

"I'm so sorry sir!" Jack shouted back.

 _Jaaaaaaaaaack… Jaaaaaaaack…..Jaaaaaaaaack_. He raked his hand through his hair grabbing his scalp, now on the verge of tears, as if he could cover his ears and crush the voices out of his mind, but they persisted. What is wrong with me? He ran in to an alleyway and had the wind lift him up, he felt too helpless right now to trust that he could stay on his feet. The wind scooped him up and tucked him in to a corner of what was supposed to one of those decorative fake balconies on buildings. He sat shaking on the cold stone behind one of the hunching gargoyles. Im shivering, Im Jack Frost…I don't shiver, he thought to himself as he wrapped his arms around his knees and curled up in to a little ball, needing to feel the comfort of a human body, even if it was just his own.

"This is it" Jack whispered to himself, "I've gone insane." He settled in to the corner as his own nervous flurries began collecting around him. He closed his eyes, his cheek against the rough stone, breathing deeply to calm himself down. He didn't know when he fell asleep, or for how long, but when he awoke it was well in to the night. His nerves had caused a good foot of snow to coat the balcony, luckily it was well in to the colder seasons so hopefully no one would question it, even if it was just this one rooftop. He stared out in to the busy city, still bustling under the bulbs of light, looking like a fire he wouldn't object to throwing himself in to right about now. _Jaaaaaack_ , he tilted his head back and covered his face his hands, not again. Just when he thought he'd gotten rid of the voice for a bit. He noticed the pale glow of the full moon fall over him.

"You did this" he said to it, "You did this, so at least tell me what's happening now." He waited staring up at its blank pale face, as if he could have actually expected something from it this time. It simply glowed back at him, still and silent as usual. Finally Jack got up, "And your answer is… nothing. Why am I not surprised." As he stretched his back, now cramped from his crouch on the balcony, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle and heard a rustle. He promptly lurched off of the balcony, created a spear out of ice in his hands and pointed it at the balcony he had just been standing on. Only the gargoyle stared back at him. He began to relax but then noticed a movement in the shadows and brought the spear back up.

"Come out! I'm warning you!" He shouted hoping that whatever this thing was couldn't sense fear. He slowly floated forward, hoping to maybe catch it off guard. Little did he notice the figure rising up behind him.

"Well hello there Jack Frost."

[Rapunzel]

Rapunzel couldn't remember smiling so much ever before in her life. Not only was the festival even more amazing than she had ever dreamed it would be, but now she had someone to share it with. After the paint canvas, surprisingly enough Eugene had stuck around for the entire rest of the first day. She had figured it was only because he hadn't been able to find anyone else to spend his time with, but when she came down to the hotel lobby the next day, she found Eugene saving a seat for her and asking "So what are we checking out today?".

We… Rapunzel thought. She finally had someone to share these moments with. Sure Hiccup and Anna and now even Jack would hang out with her, but she always felt imposing or boring to talk about this stuff with them. Not that Eugene was any sort of Art Buff or anything, but considering the circumstances, she was surprised to find he actually listened to her.

When they had gone to the pottery station earlier that day, Rapunzel had begun to remind him to tough it lightly or else

"I know I know," he said, " or else the entire thing will go in to a haphazard mess of a shape like it did the first time you tried to make a clay vase, you told me this already before we did pottery in class."

She stared at him wide eyed in shock. Pottery was only a one to two class sample project towards the beginning of the year, she didn't even remember telling him this, nor did she think he ever actually listened to any of the advice she gave.

In the middle of working on the pots, she spotted Naveen and a blond haired man she didn't recognize approach them. Naveen introduced the other boy as John and asked Eugene if he wanted to go with them for another round of paintball. She could feel part of herself hoping he would say no.

"Eh, why not," Eugene responded.

Well, Rapunzel sighed and thought to herself, it was nice to have the company while it lasted. She continued delicately painting her already fired vase when Eugene irritably called, " You coming or what Blondie?"

She looked up in surprise, "Huh?"

"Hurry up!" He said, " You can finish that later, if we don't go they'll clear the fields for the lantern thing.

"Uh… I think I'm okay," Rapunzel said hesitating. Eugene simply frowned at her. He came over grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her forward.

" Eugene! I can't do this, I mean it'll be really fun, but everyone's so big. I've never done this before."

She did it.

It was the most fun she'd had in years. Running across the field, her team at her side, feeling the rush of adrenalin from the competitive atmosphere. She'd felt empowered and well… free. If anyone came for her or any of her teammates, she had a defense. She could protect them and herself, and not to mention she had amazing aime from learning to lasso her hair all these years. After the game she felt a clap on her back "This is our team MVP!" Naveen shouted "Ay Eugene, where did you find this one, she's amazing no?".

Rapunzel laughed and blushed at the praise.

"Huh, yeah." Was Eugene's only reply ( What Rapunzel had not read in to was Eugene's new strategic insertion of himself between Naveen's arm and Rapunzel). John came then from her other side and pulled her in to a side hug with his arm. "I need you on my team every time from now on!" ( Eugene frowned, he was being tag teamed). " What do you say to another round," John asked her.

"Uh.. you guys go ahead. I'm hoping to get to the lantern painting before tonight's festival."

"Ah the lanterns," Naveen said, " With the music and the candlelight, right on the water, very magical, even romantic you could say," he winked at her, " hope to see you there."

With a goodbye she left the boys to follow the signs towards the lantern painting, hoping she wasn't too late. Eugene still walked next to her, he seemed to be sticking around, even though he now had other people he could definitely be spending his time with.

"So…" Eugene started, "Blondie, uh, that was pretty cool, what you did back there."

"I know!" She exclaimed, before trying to play it off cool, " I mean…. I know."

"So, Eugene, you seem to be enjoying yourself I might say, you know, if I didn't know any better."

"What? Woah woah woah Blondie but you do know better. I got a rep to protect. You seem to be having the time of your life though."

" Oh its so much better than I ever could have imagined."

"Yeah I gotta say its beats the expectations of an art festival thats for sure. But hey Blondie, I've got a question for you."

"Ask away."

"Well you've been taking AP art since like Freshman year right?"

"Yup"

"You're too much of a goodie two shoes to get in trouble, and they didn't have the 10 student limit on the trip until this year, so… if you've wanted to come to this festival so badly, why haven't you gone before?"

Now this was a question Rapunzel had not expected. What could she tell him? She could make something up, but for some reason she really didn't want to. She didn't know why, maybe it was just the freedom of the area, the rush leftover from paintball, the feeling of her true self blossoming, or maybe it was just the sincerity in his eyes. She didn't want to lie to him.

"Ummm… well… Oh By the Gods! You're bleeding!"

"No I'm not." Eugene said examining himself.

" Uh yeah you are," Rapunzel said grabbing his forearm and showing him the gash.

"Huh, I thought that was red paint. You know it was hurting this whole time. Now it all makes sense."

"Let me help you with that."

" Nah its fine, we'd have to go all the way back to the bus for the first aid kit, and then we'd probably miss the lantern painting thing you wanted to go to, so lets just go." He started walking ahead of her.

"Eugene! We won't have to go back to the bus." He stopped and quirked an eyebrow at her.

" You wanted to know my talent didn't you?" She said smiling shyly at him.

[Hiccup]

Hiccup tapped his foot impatiently in the cafeteria. He hadn't had much time to catch up with Merida recently since she'd been training for the competition that had just happened over the weekend over in Scotland. It was a small preliminary competition before the World's tournament in two weeks. He was eager to know how his bow had performed, he'd been especially proud of this design, but had already begun thinking of ways to tweak it a bit after having the chance to watch her shoot a few times now. Once he got an idea of her style, he began mentally adjusting it to fit her stance even more perfectly. Though knowing Merida, she could probably win any competition with nothing more than a coat hanger and a stick. He had texted her about this, asking about how the bow felt, if there was anything that was uncomfortable, anything he should take note of as an imperfection to work on.

"No" was the only response he got. He hadn't thought about it much at the time, he figured she was probably just stressed with the traveling and the competition and all. But when he had texted her about it afterwards he still hadn't gotten any response. He chalked it up to travel stress. Now he caught a shock of red hair in the corner of his eye.

"Merida!", she turned towards him, a fierce look in her eye. He made his way over to her, she had stopped in front of a bake sale table for the video gaming club. " Hey Hiccup! Wanna buy some cookies?" Vanellope called from the table.

" I'm good" Hiccup said waving

"Cupcakes?"

"No?"

"Chocolate covered Pretzels?"

He shifted his attention, realizing this probably wouldn't end soon. "Merida, how'd the tournament go?"

"Fine."

"Well, did you win?"

"Any doubt?"

"No, that awesome, Congratulations! I was expecting it but also kinda worried. Like I said, cant have my bow be the one that messes something up. Speaking of the bow, I was brainstorming this idea after watching you shoot that I can show you, I think it'll help you wi…."

Merida suddenly glared at him silencing his words.

"Help me?"

"Well yeah I just thought…"

" Is there something wrong with the way I shoot?"

"Crepe?" Vanellope interjected.

"No….. And Merida you know thats not what I meant, I'm saying it could be better if…"

"So now I'm not good enough?"

"Not you! The bow,"

"Because listen here Hiccup of Burk, I've been shooting since before yur fancy little bow, and I'll be shooting for long after it. In fact, I've been shooting for long since yur dragon came and made ya special so don't think for one minute that I need you to help me win any of my competitions."

" That's not what I meant! Its just my responsibility.."

"I'm you're responsibility?"

" Lets assume from now on that everything I'm saying is about your bow and not you! And yes since you brought the bow to me in the first place, its my responsibility to make sure its completed properly!"

" Well its been completed! Thank you very much for that, but don't think for a second that I need you, or any of your fancy tricks to make me a good marksman. Good day."

With that she spun on her heel and walked away, leaving Hiccup staring after her in hurt confusion.

"What the—-"

"Fudge?"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Helloooo Friends! Sorry its been such a long time since an update or an authors note, I suck I know, I'll try to be better about it. Anyway hope you guys enjoy this chapter, stick around for the next one to see what's up with Jack and his disappearance. Reviews are very much appreciated, and big thanks to those who made it this far in to this sappy ass story for some fairly old movies now. Thanks for being as nostalgic for them as I am and reading this take on their characters! Much love to all y'all.

[Elsa]

Hot chocolate had gone surprisingly well. Anna was everything Elsa had remembered her being and so much more, she was just completely bubbly clumsily and ridiculously full of love. Elsa hadn't been able to understand it, after she had essentially ignored her sister for the last 10 years, the other girl still cherished her anyway. It had been a rough start ( after about 10 years of not really talking to anyone, conversation was not really Elsa's strong point) but Anna took over fairly quickly asking her how she'd been, how classes were, what she'd learned and slowly it became more and more natural. Slowly the dread that had made seconds in to eternity before she walked in morphed in to a dread that turned hours in to minutes, fearing that this moment of bliss would end. They had talked and talked until they had drained their cups and for hours past that. Anna made sure to catch Elsa up on everything that had happened in her life, how she had met Kristoff ( Elsa now had a personal vendetta against Hans of her own that would add to Jack's revenge plot), how her sister had come to realize her own powers, every club she'd been a part of , her favorite bands, colors, hobbies, everything. They even dove deeper, and although shaky, Elsa finally explained what had happened all those years ago that made her so afraid.

"Well if you're powers go out of control when your afraid and thrive with love, then I have nothing to worry about, because I love you and you love me, you have nothing to be afraid of." Anna said to her.

"See its not that simple Anna," she replied, " even when I hurt you then it wasn't because I lost control, it was just because of an accident. I thought that if even an accident could hurt you, its best to just not even allow an accident in the first place. If I stayed away from you, there could never be any accidents."

"So what changed your mind?"

"Well…to be honest it had a lot to do with Jack. I saw him control it so easily and when I accidentally hit him and nothing happened, I don't know. I guess I thought it'd be safe to learn to control it around him cause there was no chance I could hurt him. He's actually the one who pushed me to talk to you, and I'm glad he did. I can't promise I'll always be okay, but I'll try. I can control it pretty well now, but I still don't completely trust myself, not yet anyway."

"Please don't shut me out again, I don't think I can bear it after having this, this is the happiest I've ever been in my life," Anna said reaching for her sisters hand, but Elsa naturally flinched away and put it in her lap. Elsa saw the disappointment in Anna's eyes, " Sorry I just…" she began but Anna cut her off.

"No don't apologize when you are only doing it for me, I'm just being selfish is all. Why don't we do this? I'm not losing you again so here, anytime that you feel like you might not be able to control your powers or just need some space in general, we'll use a codeword!"

Elsa couldn't help but laugh at her childish excitement and chimed in, " I think that could work, what would the codeword be?"

"Uhhhh" Anna looked all around them until her eyes settled back on to her cup, " Hot Chocolate! But wait thats two words, its only supposed to be one…. Hmmm how about Marshmallow?"

"Marshmallow…" Elsa said slowly, she looked down at her gloves unsure if a code word would do much, but she looked back up to see the hope in her sisters eyes and realized as she looked in to them she truly did want the same thing. It was worth a shot.

"I like it," she finally said.

"Then marshmallow it is," her sister said smiling at her giddily. Elsa smiled back at her but noticed in the window behind them that it was beginning to get dark outside.

"Oh my god, its so late! Didn't you say you had a project due tonight? We should go home." Elsa began gathering her things and stood up to see Anna still sitting in her spot, staring up at her with tears in her eyes. "What's wrong" Elsa asked her face burning, she would never forgive herself if she'd somehow messed this up at the last hurdle. Anna simply shook her head, stood up and said, "Absolutely nothing in this world. And you're right WE should go home, she hooked arms with her sister and happily pranced out the door of the cafe, the two girls walking home together for the first time in 10 years. As they reached the house, Anna squeezed Elsa'a arm which she was still holding on to, bringing the other girl in as tight as possible.

" I'm going to bake Jack the most amazing basket of thank you muffins that have ever been created!"Anna declared.

Elsa smiled at that, "Make brownies," she said, "he loves brownies." Anna pulled away from her and gave her a sly smile.

" So are you going to do anything for him next time you see him?" She asked.

"Yup. I'm gonna punch him."

"WHAT?!"

"He was supposed to come with me today and he just left without saying anything! Don't worry I'll hug him afterwards to make up for it."

Anna rolled her eyes at that, "Mayyybe you should think about doing something a little more special. He did reunite you with your amazing sister and all."

"Like what?"

"Well…. Winter formal is coming up, ask him to go with you."

"Like on a date? No!"

"Why not! Just imagine," Anna said painting a scene in front of them now, " The two ice masters of the school coming to winter formal together. It'll be the cutest thing since baby Yoda!".

"I'm not asking him to formal, its JACK."

"Yeah I know, the STRAIGHT HOTTIE in all your classes."

"What?"

"Come on Elsa, you're telling me that you're not even a little attracted to him? Just a teensy bit?"

"Anna, we're just friends, he doesn't even see me in that way."

" All I'm saying is that HE is always talking about you when we're all together, and you always open up around him. He's the first person you actually let get to know you in the last 10 years, and when you're with him, you're always the Elsa I remember. The Elsa you were today. Just think about it." Anna said and headed through the door. Oh and after that it was all Elsa could think about. She thought about his blue eyes that literally sparkled when he gave her his classic mischievous grin. The sharp jawline and the way silvery hair was just perfectly ruffled. The way his shoulders shook when he laughed to hard, the warmth of his hugs and his sincerity whenever he worried about her. How graceful he looked whenever he flew through the sky or really used his powers, how soft his lips looked. Just… Jack.

No! This was insane. She headed to room thoroughly prepared to focus on her work and put this whole Jack thing behind her.

 _The morning sun warmed her skin, Frozone had created an entire arena today, with snow covered hills all layered up in booby traps with an ice fortress at the center that they were supposed to break in to. She crafted her own ice board and slid down the mountain, an arsenal of ice shards ready in hand. She seemed to have tripped one of the traps because it began to rain snowballs on her but she easily avoided most and shot down any other ones. Suddenly there was a large blast that seemed to have come from her right. As she looked in the direction she felt another blast from underneath her and was launched in to the air. Hastily she made and ice shield as she came to the ground, but the ice was too thin and she crashed through in to a hollow cavern with what looked like stalagmites sticking up out of the ground. She tried to collect her thoughts in her frightened state, figure out what she could do, but she didn't need to do anything. She felt an arm slip around her waist and somehow she was in the air but she wasn't falling anymore._

 _"Careful there Frostbite, this isn't amateur hour."_

 _"Shut up." She said smiling in to a pair of bright blue eyes. They were both so close that she could feel the rhythm of his breathing and his heartbeat racing against hers. The sun coming in from the crack in the ice she'd fallen through, was giving him a halo._

 _"Shut up?" Jack said, " It's actually pronounced thank you. It's about time I got some proper appreciation."_

 _"Proper, I can do proper." With that she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his lips on to hers, felt the brush of their cold softness and then the increased pressure as he pulled her closer, his fingers combing in to her hair._

She woke up. Crap Elsa thought to herself. What had Anna done to her?

After a breakfast of waffles and hot chocolate the two girls walked to school together in the morning, Anna swinging the fresh brownie basket with a bounce in her step. As they entered the school, Elsa got ready to split off when Anna asked,

"Where are you going? Class doesn't start for another 20 minutes, come to our table!". Elsa blushed. " No its okay, I don't want to intrude on you and your friends."

Anna grabbed her hand, " Elsa coooome ooooh. They've been dying to meet you. Their friends with Jack too so they won't mind, they hear about you all the time anyway. Jack'll probably be there too, he's always with us in the morning. Besides I want to you to officially meet Kristoff".

As she was dragged over to the table, all Elsa could do was try to hide her blush that came when she thought of her dream and the thought that Jack talked about her to his friends. As Anna brought her over to the table she saw Hiccup and Kristoff's eyes widen.

"Uhhh… Hey Anna….Hi…..Elsa." Hiccup said looking a little confused.

"Hey Guys!" Anna chirped back.

" So I'm guessing hot chocolate went well," Kristoff said to her sister.

"Amazingly" Anna replied kissing him on the cheek. It made Elsa smile to see her sister so loved, so happy, she deserved it. Now Elsa was considering whether she owed it to herself too.

" So Elsa," Hiccup asked. "Where are you off to first?"

"Oh Me?…Well I uh, I have history of magic first." Dammit she'd spoken that way too fast. Her heart was racing. She really needed these people to like her. She hadn't had to actively make friends in god knows how long.

Hiccup didn't seem to mind her stumbling. He simply smiled and asked. " Hey isn't Jack in that class with you?"

She nodded, " You haven't seen him around have you?".

"Yeah!" Anna jumped in, " I have to give him his brownie basket for setting up the hot chocolate meeting yesterday!"

"No I haven't seen him yet," Hiccup said, " I messaged him yesterday but he still hasn't responded yet. Might be late or busy or something, I'm sure he'll come in last minute and really try to do everything to make the most noise possible getting to his seat."

Elsa laughed at that, trying to hide her disappointment.

He never showed up. She waited for him in every class, staring at the door hoping he'd walk in late but he never did. She'd messaged him and gotten no response, she tried calling him and it went straight to voicemail. She'd emailed him all their assignments hoping she'd get a thank you response, but still nothing. She was left there refreshing and refreshing her screen to no avail.

[Eugene]

Rapunzel stared at him from across the bench looking nervous.

"Okay…" she said, " Just promise you won't freak out." He rolled his eyes at that.

" Blondie, we go to a school where people fly dragons, punch through walls, and shape-shift. Do your worst".

She gave a sigh, gave him a small smile from across the bench and took his injured arm. He half expected her to take out a paintbrush and somehow paint back the rest of his skin or something but instead she grabbed a strand of her hair and began wrapping it around his arm. It was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen, and a little gross but he was far too intrigued by where this was going to try to stop it. She then closed her eyes and began to sing. He began to seriously question whether she was clearly insane and in to some weird voodoo shit ( he'd met weirder girls before), but before he could plan his escape route he noticed that her hair had started to glow, WTF was happening? Once she'd finished her little song she opened her eyes nervously and let her hair fall away. He slowly brought his arm closer to himself and examined it to see it had been perfectly healed. His arm had just been healed, not by a healer or med student. No, his arm had just been healed by a short little astronomy art- student and her magic glowing hair.

" Oh my god, you're totally freaking out."

"I'm not freaking out!" He said defensively, " Its just not really what I expected."

"What happened to school of dragons and shape-shifters."

" Yes, well, they take dragon and shape shifting classes, you paint, you don't take glowing hair singing healy classes!"

"I take anatomy and health. I just try not to really tell people about it."

" Well why not?"

" Because its something people try to take for themselves. If it was my hands that did the healing it wouldn't be an issue, but because its my hair, people always want a strand, or a piece, or will pull on it for their own purposes. Once its cut though, it turns brown and loses its power. I need people to believe my specialty isn't something I can lose, if I lose this, I won't be special anymore. I won't be able to go to this school and then I'll really have nothing."

" Who would want to take that away from you?" He asked. She brought her feet up to the bench and wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging them and resting her chin on her knee. The sun was starting to set now, and her hair caught the light and began to glow in a similar way as it had moments before when she had healed him. Her eyes which had been so full of life only moments before when they had played paint ball had a more somber look in them. A look he knew only too well. A look that for some reason, made him really irritated to be seeing on her.

"You'd be surprised", she said to him, "I like to think people in this world aren't cruel or wicked, but there is no doubt that some of them definitely can be. I cant take the chance that someone might not like me, and might not be a person. Very few people at the school know and they can't all know. I need to keep it a secret."

" So why tell me" he asked her. She paused for a few moments, looking off in to the horizon, thinking to herself. She then turned to him and gave him the softest and warmest smile he'd ever seen in this world.

"Because Eugene Fitzherbert, no matter what you'll have the world believe, you are one of the most kind-hearted and genuine people I've ever met. You are good, and I can trust you."

He was taken aback. There was no way she could actually have a good opinion of him. He tried to play it off and tease her about it, " Hah Blondie, trusting the man who literally tried to steal your artwork to claim for himself at the beginning of this year, that you then had to blackmail. Probably not the best idea."

"It is."

"What?"

" I trust the boy who notices others pain even if they don't say it, because he's been through it himself. I trust the boy who followed through on his end of the deal, even though he really had gotten almost everything he needed to out of it against a girl who couldn't really do much if he hadn't. I trust my paintball teammate who gave me a taste of freedom, power, and friendship. That guy, I'll trust any day." She said with a smile.

" Now come on! We're gonna miss the lantern painting and I hear thats the best part of the whole thing." She jumped off the bench and began running down the grassy hill beckoning him to come with her. Her magical golden hair flowing behind her, like a golden trail leading straight in to the sun, the heavens, the light.

" I hope Blondie." He said under his breathe. He hoped he genuinely was everything she thought he was.

[Merida]

She rode through the woods her bag of arrows slung across her back, bow in hand. She needed to get away, the cold wind mixing with the sweat on her brow gave her a much needed cooling off from the feelings boiling inside of her. She'd been cold to Hiccup today, completely irrationally gone off on him and tried to cut all ties so that he would never speak to her again. SO why did she feel so awful doing it?

Sure they had started to become friends, but its not like she'd known him for all that long. Hell she'd never even spoken a single word to the boy until this year. She'd dropped friends from her life that she'd known for far longer than she'd known him, several times at that the annoying twats. The difference was that she hadn't wanted to take him out of her life and she knew it. He'd been so kind and so funny, and he wasn't intimidated by her in the least, supposing he couldn't really be after spending all his free time riding a dragon. It had been refreshing.

He was the only man she'd met in her life that didn't seem to care at all about any of the silly antics her mother always went off about and didn't really have a misogynistic bone in his body. So why had she accused him of it of all things? She hadn't really thought about what she had been saying at the time, all she knew was that she couldn't be near him. Every time she saw him her mind flashed back to the day she spent with him and his dragon. When they'd been caught by her mother. She thought her mother would lecture her for hours afterwards, but she hadn't. She actually seemed pleased.

Apparently Hiccup was the son of a fairly prestigious man himself, even though he didn't seem like it, and he was one of the most accomplished students the academy had every seen. Her mother actually approved. This only made her more certain that she needed to get away from him. She couldn't afford any distractions. She would become the greatest archer in the world and there was no man that the world would turn to to credit her accomplishments. She'd earn it all herself, no-one would "let" her do anything. Feeling anything for this scrawny ( although very sharp-jawed) boy of all people would go against everything she had fought for growing up. Her only option was to squash it before it even started, rip it out at its roots, and there would be no problem.

As her horse jumped over the first log of her self- built forest obstacle course in the back of the school, she whipped out an arrow, let it soar, and… she missed. Well she didn't miss completely but it had hit the outer ring of the target rather than on the bulls- eye as she did every single other day. She tried again and again, and even as she went throughout the coarse in the entire afternoon she had only managed to hit the exact center twice. She panted sweat dripping down her frustrated brow. She let out a shriek as she pulled an arrow out of another missed target. This was not good. Her next competition was only two weeks away and it was the last round to becoming a qualifier for the international championship. She couldn't afford to be missing such easy targets.

After another hour of little progress, Merida finally dismounted, led her horse back to its stable and headed for the locker-room. It was nearly empty except for Astrid who was unlacing her muddied boots one of the benches across from her. As Merida put her bow away she heard the other girl say, " So this is the legendary bow you used this past weekend huh?". She turned around to see Astrid walking towards her to get a closer look, "Mind if I?" Astrid said gesturing to the bow. Merida simply nodded impatiently, not much in the mood to chat. The other girl was too distracted by the weapon to notice her slight annoyance however.

" I've never seen this design before in my life." She marveled, " How did you manage to get one so light. There's no insignia on it, must've cost you a fortune to get it custom-made, which company did you go to?"

"I actually made it myself".

"Since when have you known how to make weapons? I've never seen you take an interest in anything that takes time away from target practice."

"Just learned actually. Figured it would help my skill if I knew everything about what went in to making it and designing it too. One of a kind, well two of a kind really since he made one at the same time I did to give me instruction".

" He? What craftsman had the capability to take an apprentice for such a short period of time."

" Actually he's not even a master really. It's a kid that goes here, ever heard of Hiccup?"

" Hiccup of Burke? He made that? Wow gotta give the kid some credit, I guess his skills glowed up with the rest of him, thank the lords for that transformation. You think he'd make me an new axe? I've been meaning to get a new one."

"I don't know," Merida replied, " he seemed pretty backed up last time I talked to him."

" Maybe if I bring up the time he made me lose the 7th grade dodgeball tournament, he'll feel bad and expedite the process a bit."

Merida simply shrugged, " I don't know if it'll work, but I guess you could try it. Not very promising though."

She didn't really have any idea what his schedule looked like at the moment, but something about this beautiful blonde girl meeting up with him was unsettling for her.

As Merida walked in to school the next morning she saw Hiccup waiting for her near the door. She steeled herself, just kept looking straight even though she could see him waving at her through the corner of her eye, and walked by, passing him without a glance. She could hear his foot steps as he stumbled to catch up to her.

"Merida!" She heard him call, but she simply kept walking. He came up next to her, struggling a bit with his leg to keep up to her pace. She slowed down a bit, but didn't stop walking.

" Uh, Merida, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Talk".

"Well can you stop moving for two seconds?"

She abruptly stopped, and spun on her heel to face him, trying to give him her best uninterested glare.

"Make it quick, I have to talk to the teachers about traveling on Friday before class starts."

"Well, uhh, frankly I was hoping you'd do most of the talking. I just wanted an explanation as to what exactly happened yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?"

"Yeah, you know, the fact that you're all of a sudden ignoring me, avoiding me, yelling at me. Anything ring a bell?"

"Let me get something straight. I am neither ignoring you nor avoiding you, I'm talking to ya right now aren't I. As I said, our business is simply finished, we can now go back to our lives before I asked for your help, and its not like I ever talked to you then."

"But what did I do to make you want to go back to that?"

"Why do you assume you did anything?"

"Well I must have. You used to hang out with me, laugh with me. We were friends, and now all of a sudden..,"

Merida took a breathe, this was the moment, the moment she'd have to end it once and for all.

"Then that was your mistake." She said softer than she'd meant to but she couldn't help it.

" What?" He asked her. She steeled her voice once more.

" What ever made ya think we were friends? Because ya made my bow and I let you watch me shoot? I only spent any time with you with one goal in mind, getting my bow done, any dilly dallying that came after that was never of any interest to me anyway. I'm sorry ya got the wrong idea but just because ya made my bow don't think for a second that thats supposed to give ya any glory over who I am and what I do."

Hiccup stared at her taken aback, a look of hurt and slight disgust in his eyes.

"Is that what you think of me? A glory seeker?" He said, it seemed as though he was going to go on but before he good a " Hey Merida!" Interjected from behind them. Merida turned around to see Astrid coming up to them.

" So this is your friend that made you the bow right? Hiccup?"

Before Merida could respond, Hiccup said, " Really only barely a business partner. More of a means to an end." He glared at Merida turned his gaze towards Astrid and said,

" Hiccup, I'd stay and chat for longer but I'm getting late for class. It was nice meeting you."

Merida watched him walk away, her heart breaking at every step away from her he took.


End file.
